Tsunayoshi: The Angel Experiment
by TheVongola11th
Summary: I, Sawada Tsunayoshi and five others, known as my family, were rescued from the harsh and cruel 'experiments' of the Vindice Prison in Italy by Iemitsu who is now known to have passed away. But we can't be safe and sound forever...  Eventual 1827
1. Chapter 1

**I, Sawada Tsunayoshi and five others, known as my family, were rescued from the harsh and cruel 'experiments' of the Vindice Prison in Italy by Iemitsu who is now known to have passed away. Now we're safely hidden in the Appennini Mountains of Italy, away from any sign of danger...or at least we think we are…**

**I'm starting another story as you can see! (That's why I haven't updated my other one in a while). This one is based off of Maximum Ride. This is basically Maximum Ride: KHR VERSION! (I got a few lines from the original book). I'm writing this as I read the book too, so I can get a better picture. I hope you enjoy the first chapter!**

**PLEASE R&R!**

**DISCLAIMER - I DO NOT OWN MAXIMUM RIDE SERIES OR KATEKYO HITMAN REBORN! I'M JUST BASING THIS STORY OFF OF MAXIMUM RIDE.  
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**~ Tsunayoshi ~ ~ Tsunayoshi ~ ~ Tsunayoshi ~ ~ Tsunayoshi ~ ~ Tsunayoshi ~ ~ **

_Faster! Faster! Faster!_

I hectically breathed in every morsel of air my lungs could get as I ran for my dear life. I ignored the shooting pain from the sharp rocks that were stabbing my feet. I was bare-footed, only clad in a large and tattered grey smock with baggy pants. I also ignored the nearby tree branches furiously scratching against my face. Why? Because none of that mattered, not when I was being chased by the power-hungry Vindice soldiers.

Vindice. That name always sent shivers down my spine.

But what scared me even more was the fact that the soldiers had bandage wrappings that completely covered their faces. They wore large, black hats with black robes and suits that covered their bodies.

However, I was glad. Glad that I could get so far away from the Vindice Prison. My legs were aching, my arms were sore, and I was completely drenched in sweat as I kept running. I turned to the back of me and saw that I had lost the terrifying looking soldiers. _Phew._ I came to a stop, furiously huffing out scathed and narrow breaths while noticing my quick heartbeat.

My large brown eyes scanned through the forest, looking for some kind of opening so I could distance myself even further away from them by-

A harsh rustle of the tree leaves nearby interrupted my thoughts.

_Oh no. They couldn't have caught up to me. _

My heart beat even faster. I had to find a clearing to the forest or else…

The rustling was even louder.

My heartbeat increased tenfold.

_No! No! No! I can't die today!_

I immediately burst through the trees, trying to get as far away as possible from the rustling noise. I feel the harsh pain on my chest unfaltering, as I began to run again. I could taste the familiar copper tang of blood as my chest pounded. I heard the rustling of chains; that's when I skidded to an immediate stop. I looked up and saw…

…Long black hats and robes.

…bandaged faces.

_The Vindice men have caught up to me. _

Three of them stood, right in front of me holding up guns, ready to end my life. But fate was good to me. I whipped my head around and saw it.

Not an opening, but a cliff, a cliff that ended the forest. The bright sunset from the large absence of trees shone throughout the forest, causing me to squint my brown orbs.

I regained my senses and in a matter of milliseconds, I ran towards the cliff. I could hear gunshots whizzing past me, nearly missing me by a few centimeters. As I reached the cliff, I closed my eyes, ready to jump off.

I heard the rustle of chains and loud, booming gunshots as the Vindice were trying to catch up to me once again.

I heaved in a deep breath, then I jumped off.

I unfurled my _wings_.

Yes wings, courtesy of genetic experiments from the Vindice. But we'll get to that later.

10 feet across, in a pale tan, almost light orange color, my wings caught up with the air causing me to suddenly fly upwards away from the cliff and into the sky. I pushed downwards and upwards, flapping my wings with all my strength to keep myself in the air.

I looked back and saw the Vindice men who stopped at the edge of the cliff, unable to shoot at me since I was at such a high distance.

_I won't die today. Not while my family is still alive._

**~ Tsunayoshi ~ ~ Tsunayoshi ~ ~ Tsunayoshi ~ ~ Tsunayoshi ~ ~ Tsunayoshi ~ ~ **

"Hieee!"

I jerked straight up from my bed, my hand on my chest, feeling my tense and haste heartbeat. Realizing it was just a dream, I sighed as I fell back onto my bed, loosening up. I seriously hated that dream. Almost every night, since we ran away from the Vindice, I've had that nightmare.

As I took my bed sheet off my small figure, I immediately covered myself with my arms, shivering at the chilly morning weather. I looked at watch; it was 8:27 which meant everyone was still asleep. That also meant peace and quiet for an hour or so.

I glanced out of my bedroom window before I made my way into the kitchen. I savored the beautiful and warm sunrise along with the slight pink hues in the sky. I've always enjoyed the view of the sky, especially since **we** lived so high up on a mountain, safe away from any danger. It was just me and **my family**.

Our house resembled a letter E, except turned on its side. But what made our house so unique was the fact that it almost camouflaged with the tannish, light brown mountains it was placed on. Here, my family and I could be ourselves…free, literally free without any _**cages**_.

Even better, there were no grown-ups to tell us what to do. But when we first moved here, Iemitsu took care of us, just like a father. He was the one who saved us from the Vindice labs. None of us had real parents, but Iemitsu was the closest to one we had. However, two years ago, he disappeared. We knew he was dead, but none of us ever touched that subject. So, now we were on our own, nobody telling us what to do or what to eat or when to go to bed. But, the oldest of us keep a few things running.

Even though the **six** of us were teenagers, we didn't go to school. Though we had the internet and Iemitsu educate us on basis things. But we didn't have any doctors, social workers, fees, or anybody knocking on our door. Nobody knew about us since we were in hiding from the Vindice in the first place.

_If nobody knows about us, then we stay alive_.

I was rustling around the kitchen for some decent food to cook for breakfast; I wasn't the best of all cooks but I could try to cook up something.

"Good morning, Juudaime!"

"Gokudera-kun!"

Gokudera was one of the six that lived here with me; the both of us were pretty close compared to the other four. This was another reason why Gokudera insisted on calling me **Juudaime** – for the **tenth** person he truly respected in his lifetime. He often looked up to me – even though he was older - because of my fighting tactics and strong demeanor – even though I don't show it most of the time. He also was my self-proclaimed right hand man, promising to protect me at all costs. I knew Gokudera's hot-headed and outrageous attitude can get out of hand but he can be a really supporting and amazing person to be around.

"What's for breakfast?" Gokudera asked as he shook his bed-head of silver hair.

"E-Eto…It's a surprise…" I nervously laughed, having no idea what to cook for breakfast.

"I'll pour the orange juice then." Gokudera offered as he strolled towards the small fridge.

In a matter of minutes, Yamamoto, tall with short and spiky black hair, came into the kitchen. He yawned as he slouched onto a chair which was adjacent to the table.

"Tch, about time you woke up, baseball idiot." Gokudera growled, as he poured orange juice for himself and his Juudaime.

"Haha." Yamamoto chuckled, not taking any hint of Gokudera's spiteful tone of voice, "Good morning to you, Gokudera."

Yamamoto, who was the second oldest of us, sported a calm, laid-back, and tranquil personality compared to the rest of us. Even if we were to be in any kind of danger, Yamamoto would still keep a calm air towards everybody. I really admired that about Yamamoto, but what got me was Yamamoto's obliviousness. Sure it was amusing at times, but a lot of the times he was really slow. That irked everybody, especially the intelligent Gokudera.

I looked into the fridge, hoping that there was at least something half decent to cook for breakfast. I seriously hoped that one of us wouldn't have to go out to buy the necessary food today.

_Eggs, a small portion of bread, and sausage; maybe that would do…_

…_or is that too small of a breakfast?_

I pondered about this for a while as I held the fridge open.

"Would you pick something out already?"

"Hiee!" I jumped at the familiar voice, "I'm sorry! I'm sorry, Hibari-san! I didn't see you!"

I moved aside so Hibari could take something out of the fridge. That guy could scare me so much sometimes, especially since his footsteps are so quiet. Then again, everything about him is quiet…and dangerous especially since he's the strongest of us six. That was what I admired about Hibari-san the most. He is also the oldest out of the six of us, his age preceding Yamamoto's and Gokudera's.

As Hibari took out a bottle of water, I avoided staring at his dark and slightly blue-tinted eyes. He left the kitchen, walking into the empty living room which was next to it. Of course, Hibari liked being alone; he didn't like crowding. Apparently, crowding to him was three people or more.

"I guess I'll make the eggs." Yamamoto said, grabbing the carton of eggs from the fridge, "Hey, Tsuna-"

"No way baseball idiot! Last time you tried cooking something, you nearly burned the kitchen!" Gokudera exclaimed, "And you want to know what happens if we burn the kitchen? We'll have to live off fast food since we won't have any stove or microwave in the first place!"

Yamamoto put his hands up in defeat, while keeping on his trademark smile.

"Uhh…how about we let Haru cook breakfast then; she's pretty good compared to the rest of us…" I spoke up, sometimes Gokudera and Yamamoto's fights – rather one sided fights – would get out of hand.

"All right." Yamamoto said, "I'll pour the in the rest of the drinks."

I walked into the living room, which led to the stairs. I saw Hibari resting on the couch, reading a book, his water bottle on the small table next to him.

"Ano…Hibari-san…can you set up the table cloth for breakfast?" I politely asked, "I'm going to wake up Haru and Chrome."

With a curt nod, Hibari stood up and slightly brushed against me as he went back into the kitchen. I let out a relieved sigh; thank goodness Hibari wasn't in a bad mood today. The last two of the six, Haru and Chrome, shared the last small bedroom in our abode. I pushed the door open and found the 14 year old Haru asleep, her short brown locks of hair splaying all over the bed mattress. She was barely recognizable when she calmly lay asleep on the bed. However, when she was awake she was always energetic, hyperactive, and talkative all at the same time which drained most of my energy by the end of the day.

"Wake up, Haru." I said, as I nudged the sleeping girl awake, "It's your turn to cook breakfast."

Haru blinked, her brown eyes struggling stay open with the sun splaying out from the adjacent window, "Tsuna-san…"

The brown haired girl rubbed her eyes then with her energetic mode turning on, she said, "Morning Tsuna-san! Haru will be down in a few minutes!"

"H-Hai!" I replied, almost jumping out of my pants. I turned around to face the other bed across the room. I saw Chrome with her purple hair tied up; she was sitting at the edge of the bed, already up. The girl sported an eye patch on her right eye because her eyesight and eyeball itself had been destroyed from the harsh experimenting in the Vindice labs.

"Good morning, boss." Chrome greeted, in her soft quiet voice.

"You don't have to call me that, Tsuna is fine." I replied, grinning at the 13 year old Chrome.

"Sorry Bo- I-I mean Tsuna!"

I slightly laughed at Chrome's forgetfulness. Chrome, who was the youngest out of the six of us, was very quiet, kind of like Hibari except more a soft-mannered and un-scary type of quiet. Though, Chrome learned how to open to us a bit since Iemitsu rescued the six of us four years ago. Chrome often called me boss, because I was the first person she warmed up to, Haru coming in second. She also looked up to me as a big brother since I was two years older than her.

"We'll be down soon! Just give us girls some time!" Haru said, hopping off her bed.

"Okay!" I grinned, sometimes I really admired Haru's energetic and fun-loving persona.

**~ Tsunayoshi ~ ~ Tsunayoshi ~ ~ Tsunayoshi ~ ~ Tsunayoshi ~ ~ Tsunayoshi ~ ~ **

"I want to go pick strawberries today..." Chrome quietly spoke up.

The six- rather the five of us sat at the small kitchen table, just about finished with the breakfast; Hibari was at the corner of the kitchen, away from us.

"Hahi! That's a great idea! It's starting to get warm!" Haru replied, "..And they're about ripe now."

Chrome nodded her head in agreement.

"I'll go with you guys!" Yamamoto spoke up, throwing away the rest of his breakfast.

"Let's all go, I think the fresh air will do us some good." I spoke up.

**~ Tsunayoshi ~ ~ Tsunayoshi ~ ~ Tsunayoshi ~ ~ Tsunayoshi ~ ~ Tsunayoshi ~ **

The six of us went outside – even Hibari. Though, Hibari never liked being inside too long. The sky looked amazing, completely blue without any clouds in sight along with the bright, yellow sun slowly warming us. Haru was right, it was getting warmer un-like the chilly morning I woke up to.

Chrome and Haru were in front us, getting a head-start towards the huge patch of strawberries. Yamamoto, Gokudera, and I were behind them while Hibari was behind all of us.

"Hahi! We could make strawberry shortcakes from these!" Haru exclaimed as Chrome and her began to pluck the ripe strawberries from the bushes into their baskets.

"That'd be a great idea!" Yamamoto said.

"Just don't let baseball-freak get anywhere near the kitchen while you're making them."

"Gokudera! You're still not over what happened last time?" Yamamoto replied, trying not to laugh, "It was only an accident."

"Accident or not, you were too stupid to check on the food while you were busy practicing your baseball shots!" Gokudera retorted.

"It's crucial I practice." Yamamoto grinned.

"For what? What the heck are you going to need baseball for? Cause it sure isn't useful for defending yourself in actual fighting situations!"

"You herbivores are too loud…"

Gokudera and Yamamoto whipped their heads back to see Hibari trailing far behind them.

"Oh, and what are you going to do about it?" Gokudera growled, curling his fists out.

"I guess you never learn, do you?" Hibari smirked, pulling out his tonfas, which were his most treasured weapon.

"Stop! Stop! Stop!" I cried, frantically waving my arms, getting in between the two, "P-Please don't fight!"

Gokudera sighed and unfurled his fists; he never wanted to intentionally upset his Juudaime. Yamamoto let out a soft laugh, obviously amused by my hysterical waving of my arms. Even though the small trips outside of our house included a few fights here and there – mostly initiated by Gokudera – it felt so good to be with my family, safe and sound from danger.

But then when I thought things were completely perfect, something terrible happened.

A few feet away from me, Chrome froze in her tracks and screamed.

I looked at the direction of Chrome; my heart immediately stopped. Large brown and terribly ugly inhuman monsters dropped from the sky, just like spiders. Large veins of muscles covered their arms, making them look unnaturally bulk. Their faces were plastered in green and white ink with their mouths open to show their sharp and drooling canine teeth.

_Muscle Scrum._

Those were special monsters, who were once humans, which were genetically modified at the labs of Vindice. Sick, isn't it?

Even worse, this wasn't a dream. _This was real._

**~ Tsunayoshi ~ ~ Tsunayoshi ~ ~ Tsunayoshi ~ ~ Tsunayoshi ~ ~ Tsunayoshi ~ ~ **

**Finished! I'll list the character's ages.**

**Hibari - 17**

**Yamamoto - 16**

**Gokudera - 16**

**Tsuna - 15**

**Haru -14**

**Chrome - 13**


	2. Chapter 2

**Here's the second chappy!~ Enjoy! PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE R&R!**

**~ DERP ~ DERP ~ DERP ~ DERP ~ DERP ~ DERP ~**

There was absolutely no time to think; every single second mattered. Iemitsu trained us not to think, just to act. I launched myself at one of the muscle scrum, landing a roundhouse kick on its muscly chest. The monster let out a garbled cry. I gave it another blow, not noticing another muscle scrum behind me.

"Tsuna-san! Watch out!"

_Haru._

However, I took too long to notice, causing the muscle scrum to punch me straight in the head. My head snapped, causing some blood to come out of my mouth. I fell onto the ground with a loud thud. From the corner of my eye, I saw Gokudera pulling out a couple of sticks of dynamite. Gokudera's specialty was making home-made bombs – courtesy of Iemitsu - enabling him to have an unlimited supply of dynamite.

The silver haired teen threw the dynamite towards the muscle-scrum that gave the blood sucking punch to me. The muscle scrum he hit let out a cry as the dynamite caused the monster pass out. However, two more muscle scrum ganged up on him, causing the dynamite wielder to immediately go down under the muscular hands.

"G-Gokudera-kun…!" My voice was barely above a grunt; my injuries were preventing me from speaking clearly.

I saw Yamamoto, who was taking care of another muscle scrum, ironically with his baseball bat. Behind me I saw Hibari who planted a hard kick on top of a muscle scrum that seemed to be advancing towards me. The muscle scrum fell onto the ground, letting out a rough scream. With ease, Hibari slammed his tonfa across the muscle scrum's head, causing the monster to fall to it's death.

"Get up, Tsunayoshi."

With a grunt, I nodded my head, partly glad that Hibari saved my life. Even though Hibari hardly showed any sort of compassion towards us, deep down he didn't want any of us to die because we were the only people he had. The six of us only had each other.

I stood up, clutching the back of my head.

"T-Thank you, Hibari-san." I said; he was so strong.

Hibari nodded and went past me to take care of the nearby muscle scrum. I ran towards Yamamoto, who seemed to be advancing. The black haired boy thrust his baseball bat across the stomach of his muscle scrum, causing the monster to stagger back. I jumped, thrusting my fist onto the monster's head. In a matter of seconds, Yamamoto's muscle scrum stretched his other arm, punching me straight in the stomach. I gagged, feeling an unbelievable pain explode inside of me. I dropped onto the floor, like a heavy stone.

"Tsuna!" Yamamoto cried.

Faintly, I heard Chrome screaming and Haru crying.

_Come on! Get up!_

Using the last of my arm strength, I merely staggered up to my feet. I clutched my stomach, trying not to yell out in pain. Iemitsu always taught me not to show any sort of pain towards the enemy, doing so resulted in me showing my "Dame" self, otherwise known as weak and spineless. _I need to become strong, just like Iemitsu was._

I let out a stifled gasp when I saw two muscle scrum holding Haru's hands and feet. The monsters swung her hard causing the brown haired girl to fly straight into a tree. I heard a muffled cry come out from Haru as she lay limp against the ground from the impact.

"Haru!" I cried. Right when I was about to run towards Haru, I heard a high pitched scream.This time it came from Chrome.

"Boss! Help me!"

I whipped my head back and saw that the purple haired girl was held by…no, not a muscle scrum…

…I widened my eyes in disbelief, when I realized who that was.

Blue hair. Left blue eye, right red eye. _The six paths of reincarnation_.

Mukuro Rokudo. He was a special member of the Vindice who has been tested with several experiments, one of them turning his original blue pupil into a red one with a special kanji symbol – we'll get to that later too. It's been four whole years since we've last seen him.

Mukuro held Chrome's arms, restricting the small girl from moving any more. I raced forward, jumping over Gokudera, who was unconscious. _Nobody in my family is going to be kidnapped today, not ever._ I also caught of glimpse of Hibari-san, who was barely limping from the ground. Of course Hibari wouldn't take his own defeat too lightly after this; he hated, I mean HATED, losing in battles. It was too humiliating for his strong character. Two of the muscle scrum caught up to me, outstretching their arms to pull me to the ground. I let out a cry as I collided with the hard terrain.

"B-Boss!" Chrome cried, trying her best to wriggle free from Mukuro's hard grip.

"Don't be so feisty, Chrome, or we'll have to use sedatives." Mukuro said, then turned to the muscle scrum, "Place her in the bag, be quick but careful. I don't want you guys to hurt my Chrome."

The muscle scrum obeyed, letting out obedient growls. The monsters grabbed Chrome from Mukuro, careful not to let her get away. Chrome let out another high pitched scream before she was stuffed into a giant sack. Her muffled screams and wriggling movements came out from the sack. Mukuro lodged a pointy injector type of tool into the side of the sack, causing Chrome's screaming and moving to cease.

"Chrome!" I yelled, trying to wring free from the muscle scrum's muscly grasp.

"Sawada Tsunayoshi. You recognize me don't you?"

My brown eyes widened, still surprised at the fact how Mukuro managed to find us all the way up here. I looked up at him, staring straight into his blue and red pupils.

"Mukuro…"

His boot came in contact with my face, turning everything black.

_Mukuro kidnapped Chrome. Mukuro kidnapped Chrome. He was going to take her back to Vendicare. We need to rescue her before it's too late. _

**~ DERP ~ DERP ~ DERP ~ DERP ~ DERP ~ DERP ~**

"Juudaime!"

_Gokudera-kun._

I squinted my eyes open as I let out a soft groan. I saw Gokudera and Yamamoto leaning over me, worried expressions on their injured and bloodied faces.

"G-Gokudera…what happen-"

I stopped right there. My memories came flooding back in. _Chrome! They took Chrome!_

"Where's Chrome?" My voice came out raspy.

Gokudera frowned as Yamamoto kept on his worried expression.

"They took her." Gokudera replied, his frown deepening, "Mukuro took her."

I suddenly remembered being 11 years old. I remembered looking through the dusty bar cells, watching the bandage wrapped Vindice soldiers walk in the semidarkness. They carried silver chains that shined in the dark halls. Not far I could hear pained growling noises. The soldiers were training genetically engineered muscle scrum that were once innocent humans. Such terrible memories. _That's where Mukuro was going to take Chrome. We can't let her get into the hands of Vendicare. _

My thoughts returned to the present. I tried to stand up on my elbows, instead I let out a pained groan. I fell back onto the ground.

"Juudaime!" Gokudera tried grabbing hold of me, but I calmly swatted his hands away.

"I'm okay…" I lied, I didn't want Gokudera to start worrying about me, especially when Chrome was kidnapped. _We have to get her back._

"We need to rescue her…before they-" Haru spoke up, then stopped. She didn't even want to think about what Vendicare would do to Chrome once they got their hands on her. She read my thoughts. I turned my head; I saw Haru a few feet away from Hibari who kept a distant look on his face. Then again, he always did…but I've never seen Hibari with such an unsure expression.

"Guys! Look…do you see that?" Yamamoto spoke up, pointing to a flying black object that was merely a mile away from us.

I squinted; that was a helicopter, large enough for us to still see from the great amount of distance that separated us from it.

"Chrome's probably in there! We need to hurry!" Haru exclaimed.

"Let's get her!" I exclaimed.

With all my mustered strength, I finally stood up. I backed up, making sure nobody was in my way. I nodded at Gokudera, Yamamoto, Haru, and Hibari. They all simply nodded back in recognition. I ran to the edge of the high ground and simply jumped out into the space below.

I started to fall toward below. Then I unfurled my wings, quickly, catching the wind.

_And I began to fly towards the helicopter. _

**~ HERP ~ HERP ~ HERP ~ HERP ~ HERP ~ HERP ~**

You see, the nightmare I had is pretty hard to tell from my actual life. My family and I used to live in the Vindice, a top secret headquarters in Italy. We were created by the scientists from Vendicare, who specially crafted Avian DNA into our human genes. We were basically experiments the Vindice would use to perform all kinds of torturous stuff on us. Iemitsu, who was a former worker of Vindice, felt sorry for the six of us. He kidnapped us away from there to live – or rather stay in hiding - in the Appenine mountains four years ago.

We were bird kids, a flock of six. The Vindice obviously wanted to kill us for escaping. Now they had 13-year-old Chrome.

Up and down. Up and down. I pushed my 10 foot span wings as I felt my sore shoulders tense from the strong movement. I banked sharply, heading towards the helicopter that wasn't far from us because of my quick and agile speed. I took a quick glance back and saw that Haru had jumped out after me, then Gokudera, Yamamoto, and finally Hibari. Basically, we were all flying. Hibari signaled me to let him speed up to the front. I obliged as I made space for him to bank ahead of me, his dark 15 foot wing span flapping up and down. I didn't know what Hibari was going to do to the helicopter, but since he was the strongest out of us, I'm sure he would be able to beat Mukuro and the Vindice to a pulp and rescue Chrome.

Hibari took out his metal tonfas; he sped up to catch up to the helicopter. In a matter of seconds he smashed the metal weapon against the window of the projectile, causing the delicate glass to shatter. The aircraft slightly swerved before a gun barrel popped out of the broken window.

"Hibari-san! Watch out!"

Hibari wisely dodged the bullet and used his tonfas to smash the top of the helicopter. I flew up close to the helicopter where Hibari was, barely catching sight the sack that Chrome had been put into.

"Chrome!" I yelled, then saw that a grenade had been thrown out of the helicopter. It was dropping downwards; towards Haru and Gokudera.

"Watch out!" Gokudera yelled to the girl. The silver haired boy and Haru immediately pushed backwards, getting out of the way of the explosive as fast as they could. The grenade instantaneously exploded, causing pieces of nearby earth to crumble.

The helicopter was picking up speed, making Hibari unable to catch up. _Oh no. They weren't going to take Chrome back to that unpleasant hell of a place. _My determination skyrocketed against the roof once I saw Mukuro jump out of the helicopter, holding onto the roof to keep him from falling.

He was holding onto the sack that unconscious Chrome was in. He smirked as he wiggled the bag. _He was taunting me. _

I tore towards the helicopter, fear and desperate fury making my blood boil. Mukuro threw the sack back into the helicopter, and went back in himself before I could catch up. With all my determination, I flew up higher and caught hold of the helicopter's landing skid, trying my hardest not to let go. I was basically dangling from the helicopter in the sky. _I must rescue Chrome. I must protect my family at all costs. I can't let anybody go back to Vendicare. _

The down raft from the helicopters rotors almost snapped my wings in half; I quickly pulled them in, keeping them away from the sharp rotary. I heard a slight 'kufufu' come from the helicopter. I saw Mukuro and several of the Muscle scrum behind him from the inside. The blue haired picked up a rifle and aimed it at me.

"Sawada Tsunayoshi. You don't want to make me do this. So I advise you kindly let go of the helicopter before I pull the trigger."

I heard Mukuro's voice. He was completely serious.

"Chrome…" I whispered. Mukuro's finger tightened on the gun's trigger. _He was going to do it. He was going to shoot me if I didn't let go. I would be dead. I wouldn't be able to protect my family. _

I instantly let go, falling fast. Immediate regret filled my head as I saw the helicopter flying away with Chrome. _Chrome was flying away…probably back to the Vindice…towards her death. And there was nothing I could to do save her. _


	3. Chapter 3

Flying home felt like it took years. You want to know why?

The Vindice has kidnapped Chrome; a very dear friend of mines and a part of my only family. Not only that, us six had the displeasure of seeing our arch nemesis and rival, Rokudo Mokuro kidnap Chrome. I felt completely heartbroken and empty inside once we walked into the kitchen; the first thing I saw was Chrome's nearly empty breakfast plate on the table.

Gokudera let out a frustrated yell as he swept his hand on the kitchen counter, causing a stray mug to fly towards Hibari. Hibari, noticing this, caught it with ease.

"Watch it, herbivore." Hibari angrily frowned at Gokudera. Gokudera, in response clenched his teeth and fists.

"You watch it!" Gokudera yelled back at Hibari, "What happened? I mean you were up there! Why couldn't you save her?"

_I was up there too…_

"They had a helicopter and guns! We're obviously not bulletproof!" Haru retorted.

"You-!" Gokudera shouted, but was interrupted by Yamamoto.

"Gokudera; Haru! Calm down. Arguing isn't going to get us anywhere. All we need to do is figure out a way to get Chrome back."

Gokudera glared at Yamamoto, but unclenched his fists. The silver haired teen let out a sigh while Haru obediently nodded. I anxiously looked at Yamamoto, who gave me a reassuring half smile back. _Everything would be all right…wouldn't it?_

I saw Haru open up a top shelf; she grabbed the first aid kit and set it on the table. The brown haired girl opened the small box and began to wipe Yamamoto's cheek bruise with a rubbing alcohol saturated cloth. Yamamoto slightly winced, but quietly thanked Haru for absently tending to his bruise.

"Haru…" I whispered, staring at Haru. She looked so miserable. Honestly, it was definitely not like Haru to be so depressed…and quiet. Then again, it wasn't much of a surprise because her closest friend had been taken away from her.

Hibari was darkly silent. His eyes watched me, never leaving my presence. Honestly, I could never read Hibari-san's emotions; he was so hard to figure out. But right now, I could sense boiling anger that was barely restrained. He had to be mad about being defeated by Mukuro Rokudo; he was his rival of course.

"You know, if they just wanted to kill Chrome, or kill all of us, they could have." Gokudera spoke up, "They had guns. They wanted her alive for some reason. And they didn't care if we were alive or not. I mean, they didn't go out of their way to make sure we were dead. Anyways, that makes me think we have time to go after Chrome again."

"But they were in a helicopter. They're way gone. They could be anywhere by now." Yamamoto replied, rubbing his now bandaged cheek.

"You think I wouldn't have thought about that?" Gokudera tched, then muttered, "Baseball idiot."

I slightly grimaced at Gokudera's "profanity" towards Yamamoto.

"We know where they took her."

I turned to the source of the voice; Hibari. His calm voice felt like stones.

"Where?" Yamamoto asked.

"_**Vendicare**_**.**" Hibari and I said at the same time.

**~ VINDICE ~ VINDICE ~ VINDICE ~ VINDICE ~**

Haru gasped; her hand over her mouth, and her brown eyes wide. Yamamoto looked quite disturbed while Gokudera clenched his teeth into a furious scowl, showing the most obvious emotion in the room. The silver haired teen remembered his never ending days of torture and harsh experimenting on him done by the Vindice themselves.

"They took Chrome back to Vendicare?" Yamamoto asked.

"Probably..." I replied, my uneasy feelings never leaving me.

"Why…? You think after four years; I thought maybe they had forgotten about us-"

"They want us back." said Hibari, who kept his glance on me.

"They'd never forget about us." Gokudera added, unusually agreeing with Hibari, "Iemitsu wasn't supposed to take us out of there."

"Iemitsu knew Vindice would do anything to get us back. If anybody discovered what types of experiments Vendicare did on us; it would be the end of them." Hibari said, his eyes boring into mines. I was slowly sinking from his intense gaze.

"Why don't we tell anybody about what Vendicare did to us?" Haru demanded, her usual happy-go-lucky voice turning into a firm one, "We could go to the police and say, 'Look, they grew wings on us, and we're just kids, and-"

"Well, maybe that would save us from Vindice, but we'd end up in a zoo." Gokudera had to restrain himself from face palming; sometimes he thought that Haru could be a bit too clueless sometimes…

"What are we going to do then?" Yamamoto asked, his calm tone of voice beginning to get panicky.

Hibari left the room, only to return several seconds later, holding a pile of yellowed, fading papers. The edges of the sheets looked nibbled. _Mouse bites?_ Hibari shook off what looked to be like brown bits from the pile. _Mouse poop? _

"Hahi…" Haru grimaced, covering her nose with her sleeve, "That's gross desu…"

"Here." Hibari said, pushing the papers towards me.

Those papers were Iemitsu's old printed out files. After he disappeared, we cleared off his desk and shoved everything in the back of a closet just in case of an emergency. I spread the papers out on the kitchen table, along with the help of Gokudera. Just looking at the papers made me feel all jittery; none of us had seen these files in years. Hibari started to sift through the pile before he found a large manila envelope. He opened the envelope, revealing a rather important drawing. Everybody seemed to lean in close to him to get a better sight.

"Eto…What's that?" I asked.

"Map." Hibari replied, looking quite annoyed by our close proximity. _I told you he hated crowding…_

The drawing was a faded topographical drawing.

"Map of what?" Haru leaned in closer, only to have Hibari frown, swatting her away from his "personal" space.

"Map of a secret facility." I replied, my heart pounding louder and louder, "That's Vendicare in Messina, Sicily…"

**~ VINDICE ~ VINDICE ~ VINDICE ~ VINDICE ~**

"Wh…what?" Yamamoto barely whispered, his face becoming pale.

"That's where they took Chrome." I replied, "…And that's where we need to go get her back…"

Haru's hand softly clamped her mouth; she was trembling, "We **have **to go get her back. We can't let her stay with…with them. They're monsters, they're going to do really bad things to her…a-and put her in a cage. And-and t-there going to do tests on her. B-but there's five of us…so the rest of us have to go get _hmrph_-"

"Stop with the tedious chatter, herbivore." Hibari wrapped his hand across her mouth, not wanting to hear Haru's squeaky voice anymore. Haru instinctively peeled Hibari's fingers apart.

"How far is it?" Gokudera asked.

"About 600 miles…more or less." Hibari replied, eyes glued onto the map.

"That's like a seven hour flight without any breaks!" Gokudera exclaimed.

"We don't have any more time to discuss this." Hibari said, glaring at Gokudera, as I skimmed the map, thinking of quick routes and convenient rest stops.

Gokudera angrily frowned at Hibari, "What do you suppose we do then?"

Hibari hesitated for a moment, then spoke again in his calm voice, "Tsunayoshi, Haru, and I are going after Chrome while you and Yamamoto stay here."

The silver haired teen immediately fumed at this, "WHAT? You're making me stay with baseball freak? And, why the hell am I not going with Juudaime? I'm his right hand man; I'm supposed to protect him at all times-"

"Gokudera-kun! Please!" I interrupted; we couldn't afford to waste any more time, Chrome's life was probably depending on us right at this very moment.

"J-Juudaime…" Gokudera whispered in defeat.

"We need a couple of you to stay here, just in case Chrome manages to escape and finds her way back here." Hibari continued, ignoring Gokudera's noticeable anger. I looked back and forth from Gokudera to Hibari, afraid that their fight might escalate again; that would probably slow down this whole plan.

"You're so full of it." Gokudera hissed, breaking the silence, "You think everything you say goes."

Hibari's frown deepened, his patience was wearing thin.

"M-Maybe there's a reason why Hibari-san is only picking a few of us…" I spoke up.

Gokudera crossed his arms, and stared at me, only with a straight face. I knew he was very upset, unable to help me, his Juudaime. I focused my attention on Yamamoto who was quiet the whole time; maybe he also had a clue why Hibari wanted him to stay along with Gokudera.

"Yamamoto…" I said.

"It's okay, whatever Hibari-san has planned out will definitely be full proof." The baseball fanatic responded, gestured his thumbs up in agreement. I always envied how Yamamoto could be so easygoing all the time.

"_Iemitsu would never have made us stay_." Gokudera said, in a barely audible voice, "_Never._"

"We wouldn't know…_Iemitsu is dead_." Hibari replied, his voice completely icy.

…And after that long quarrel, we finally parted our ways. Yamamoto and Gokudera were to stay behind while Hibari, Haru, and I would fly our way to Vindice to save Chrome.

Here we come.

**~ VINDICE ~ VINDICE ~ VINDICE ~ VINDICE ~**

**This chapter is kinda short….so I'm sorry for that! D: I felt this was the best part to stop since chapter 12 in Maximum Ride starts up with the flock leaving to save Angel.**

**Please R&R and tell me how this chappie was!**


	4. Chapter 4

"A-Ano, are we clear on our backup plan?" I spoke up, making sure to raise my voice as the three of us flew against the loud roar of the wind currents.

Hibari nodded while Haru shouted out a 'Hai!' in response.

We were headed south, leaving the Apennine Mountains. I was still wary about the fact that we had to leave, out of all people, Yamamoto and Gokudera behind, and even bring Haru with us. Though another part of me is sure that Hibari-san knows what he's doing. _I seriously hope he knows what he's doing. _According to Hibari-san and our quickly devised plan, we had to fly at least 90 miles per hour. 90 miles per hour was the most convenient speed to get us to the Vindice quickly enough while saving just enough energy in case we run in with bad guys along the way which is likely.

"Hey…" Haru said over the furious wind, "If we get separated…though I don't see how we could desu, considering we're basically flying in the sky…pretty much alone…wait- what if one of us were to get lost in a cloud or something. Is that actually possible? Hahi! I wonder what the inside of a cloud feels like; I know for a fact it's definitely not all soft and marshmellowy-"

Hibari shot her an annoyed look; sometimes that girl talked too much for her own good. Haru immediately got the hint and stopped talking; she gave Hibari an innocent smile.

"We meet at the highest point of mount Giovo." Hibari replied, only to get more questions from Haru.

"…And where's the Vindice?" The girl added.

"Messina, Sicily. Didn't I already say this?"

"Hahi…sorry. I'm just so worried about Chrome; I can't seem to think straight." Haru replied, her face giving into a pout. When Haru was about to ask why Hibari picked her to come with me and him; she immediately stopped, afraid that Hibari might get mad at her for talking so much.

The rough wind rapidly blew my unmanageable and spiky hair all over my face; I had to repeatedly spit the brown strands out. _Stupid hair!_ I bet Gokudera and Yamamoto were going at it…well actually Gokudera would be the one yelling at Yamamoto, probably spouting at how mad he was at the fact he had to stay back home with him. However, that was the least of my concern, given Chrome's current situation.

I stole a quick glance at Hibari. Instead of his usual cold and intimidating frown…he actually looked…calm. Hibari caught me staring and gave me what looked to be like a half smile…or one fourth of a smile…or what looked to be like a smile. One that probably read '_don't be so anxious all the time; that would only make things worse'_. Hibari almost never smiled, let alone give out a half smile of some sorts. Hardly.

_GAHHH! Hibari-san is so hard to read!_

I slightly blushed, at the fact that he caught me looking; I quickly turned away. I looked over at Haru who seemed to be at thought; trying her best to keep all her words in. She looked as if she wanted to say, or rather babble something long to us. I still wondered why Hibari chose Haru over Gokudera or Yamamoto to come with.

I ignored the thought and checked my watch; we'd been flying for a total of two hours. I clutched my stomach as it growled furiously; yes, flying takes a lot of energy out of you. Then again, I haven't ate since breakfast…

"Tsuna-san…" Haru, with her big brown eyes and her brown speckled wings, looked at me, "I was wondering…"

I inwardly sighed, expecting another one of Haru's endless speeches.

"Ano, right before we left. I looked through more of Iemitsu's old files…and some of them were actually about us…well I only found some of me. You see, I saw my full name, Haru Miura, on the page and then the location Naples, Italy…and then I read something about parents moving from Japan to Italy for refuge from something…or whatever. I was thinking, none of us ever knew our real parents…if we actually had real parents…well I've always wondered whether they gave us up to Vendicare or either that we're just test tube ba-"

"Haru, I know that you're worried...but we don't know if those files are actually true. Let's just focus on rescuing Chrome." I replied, waiting for a response.

Silence.

"Haru?"

"Hahi! S-Sorry. I was just thinking…" The brown haired girl replied.

**~ TEST TUBE ~ TEST TUBE ~ TEST TUBE ~ TEST TUBE ~**

Her whole body was sore. Her whole body was aching. Everywhere possible, she was aching. Chrome blinked several times, trying to regain her conscience and awareness of her surroundings. Above her was a silver metal roof, bars surrounded her. A cage. Her thoughts were unclear as she struggled to sit up, her aching not helping at all. Though, she knew where she was. The coldness. The darkness. The chemical-like smells. _She was trapped in Vendicare._

Next to her was another crate, this time occupied by what looked to be like the most inhuman experiment. Chrome couldn't even describe it; it was just too unbearable to watch. Dozens of arms and fingers stuck out from its body, green and moldy scales adorned its skin while its small head was shriveled which resembled a raisin. Another one of Vindice's failed experiments. Chrome placed her palm over her mouth and closed her eyes shut, as she tried her best not to look at it.

The purple haired teen heard a creaky door open nearby. She immediately jumped up, startled by the sudden noise, causing her head to hit the ceiling of the cage. Chrome winced in pain. Footsteps were heard, getting closer and closer to Chrome's cage. Her heart began to beat rapidly when she saw two men with white laboratory style coats in front of her cage.

"Oh, my goodness – Iris was right." One of the lab men said, he crouched down to stare at Chrome through the cage bars, "Mukuro actually got her! Do you know how long I've wanted to get my hands on this one? I've also heard there were a few more like her!"

"Mukuro told me. Though, subject 96 is what we need most." The other lab man replied, "…And this is subject 96, right?"

"That's it you're looking at." The first lab man quickly nodded his head, with growing excitement, then faced Chrome, "Come on, little girl, you're needed at lab seven."

Rough hands immediately grabbed hold of Chrome's delicate wrist, causing the small girl to wince. Her heart felt as if it were going to explode by now.

_What were they exactly going to do her? Though, the sound of 'lab' at all obviously does not sound good._

**~ TEST TUBE ~ TEST TUBE ~ TEST TUBE ~ TEST TUBE ~**

"Tsuna-san…I'm so hungry desu…"

I tried my best to ignore the aggressive growling of my stomach; but it was no use. My flying was even slowing down a bit cause of my hunger. As hungry as I was, we couldn't afford to waste any more time…Chrome could probably…I don't even want to think about it. But we obviously need fuel to run faster, even worse we could possibly faint from lack of food; a few minutes for food couldn't hurt, right?

"H-Hibari-san!" I spoke up, forcing myself to say these next six words to Hibari, "W-we need food…we're really hungry…"

Hibari slowed down his flight; his jet black wing span allowing Haru and I to catch up to him. I waited for Hibari to respond. I still wondered how he could keep such a calm façade, although I knew he wasn't on the inside.

"Oh! I know! There are probably vacation houses below us!" I spoke up, once again.

"…And how do you know they're not occupied?" Hibari replied, giving me a rather serious frown.

"E-Eto…we could always check…" I replied, my typical nervous demeanor coming back, I sometimes hated it how easy it was for Hibari to make me so nervous, "We're really starving and that's our best bet…I-I guess…"

"Stealing food, huh? That's not like you, herbivore." Hibari slightly teased, with his usual calm voice, causing me to blush in defeat.

_Well, we need to do anything at all costs to help Chrome, right?_

"Pleaseeee, Hibari-san!" Haru whined, clutching her growling stomach.

Hibari slightly rolled his eyes at Haru's childish whining before sighing in defeat.

"Okay, follow me." The jet-black haired teen said; Haru and I nodded in response.

We followed Hibari as we flew into a big circle around the edges of the mountains; small houses were coming to view. Away from the other houses, there was one separated on the side of a mountain. From our high view, there looked to be no cars parked outside of it which meant it was unoccupied at the time.

Hibari banked and slowed down before we did the same, landing a few yards away from the house. I saw Hibari and Haru fold their wings in, keeping them out of sight. When I landed, I fell flat onto my stomach. My legs felt unusually rubbery and stiff for flying so long, so of course I wasn't going to get a perfect landing. Haru slightly giggled at my typical dame and clumsy landing while Hibari shook his head. The brown haired girl lent a hand to help me up, I took hold of it and she pulled me back up.

The three of us saw that the house was completely abandoned. The wooden porch was covered in tree leaves with fallen branches, vines were growing around the porch rims, and the driveway was also covered with leaves. I saw Hibari take out one of his tonfas; he carefully ripped open one of the window screens which lead into the house. The three of us climbed in, Haru first, then me, and finally Hibari.

Dust covered almost everything, a sign that the vacation house was definitely abandoned. The fridge seemed to be turned off. I saw Hibari opening the kitchen cupboards, revealing a large collection of dusty canned food. The canned food ranged from all kinds of stuff like fruit and ravioli.

"Food!" Haru grinned, grabbing a can of soup from the cupboard. Chances are the soup, or all of the food for that matter could be way past its expiration date, but none of that mattered since we were literally starving. Alongside the cupboards, I found some dusty bottles of sprite and popped all of those open.

30 minutes later, the three of us were sprawled on the moldy couches of the house's living room, way too full and sleepy to function.

"Hahi…so…full…desu…" Haru groaned, clutching her stomach, "I can't move…"

I saw Hibari on a separate couch, leaning against the side of it, his eyes closed.

"Let's rest for a bit. We'll feel better afterwards." I heard him say.

"Okay Hibari-san…good idea." I replied. My eyes were starting to close, drifting off into sleep…

_We're coming Chrome. In a minute. _

**~ DOZING OFF! DOZING OFF! DOZING OFF! DOZING OFF! ~**

"I can't believe that idiot Hibari!" Gokudera growled as he angrily punched the doorframe.

Not even furious could describe the boiling anger he was feeling right at this moment. Having to listen to the rest of them leave while he stayed home, with Yamamoto of all people, fueled that anger. On top of that, he was not able to do anything to save Chrome or protect Juudaime. He picked up and threw a golf ball, at quite an impressive distance. It collided with a glass window, causing it to shatter into a billion pieces. Yamamoto winced at the sudden impact.

"I'm his right hand man, I'm supposed to be there to protect him…" The silver hair teen clenched his fists; he was visibly shaking, not able to take it anymore, "I swear to god, Hibari will get what's coming to him once he comes back-"

"Maa Maa, Gokudera!" Yamamoto interrupted, "Getting mad at Hibari, who's not even here, isn't going to make things any better."

"Don't interrupt me, baseball idiot!" Gokudera shouted, "Aren't you freaking pissed that you had to stay behind while everyone else gets to rescue Chrome?! Oh! But with you, you're always so darned oblivious and carefree that you don't even give a shit!"

Yamamoto's relaxed expression changed into a hardened one. Usually when Gokudera would go on about with his frequent one-sided screaming matches, he would keep calm because it was Gokudera's nature to be easily fueled. However, now wasn't the time to stay so angry, not at all. Their friend – or rather family member – was in grave danger, and going on about with tantrums would just make things worse.

"Man, this sucks…" Gokudera crossed his arms, keeping a scowl on his face, "I bet Hibari thought we would just get in the way…and what was with him choosing Haru to go with them. We all know that she's weaker than the both of us, even you."

It was silent for a long moment. The only sounds that were evident was the brisk pace of Gokudera's footsteps and the wind blowing through the newly shattered window. Yamamoto's head was facing the ground. However, that was until the spiky haired baseball fanatic let out an audible gasp.

"What?" The right-hand man spoke up.

"Hey, Gokudera, Did Hibari ever mention to us about what would happen if Muscle Scrum were to actually come here…?" Yamamoto slowly said, an idea was creeping up behind his mind. The baseball player continued as Gokudera rolled his eyes with impatience, waiting for Yamamoto to get to the point, "They got Chrome not far from here so that means they must have seen the rest of us…wouldn't it make sense for them to come back for us?"

Gokudera's green eyes widened; he was speechless. He immediately grabbed Yamamoto and shook him by the shoulders.

"For once in your entire life, you are a genius!" The green eyed teen exclaimed, excitement dancing in his irises.

Yamamoto kept on a sheepish grin and shrugged, his modest nature getting the better of him.

"Since it's fairly hard to find our house, Mokuro probably brought along extra choppers with Vindice soldiers and muscle scrum to search for it above."

"Now that's even worse."

"No shit." Gokudera quickly replied, then paused for a bit, "We can't just sit around and do nothing; something like this is bound to happen."

Yamamoto nodded, "But what exactly do we do?"

"We could make traps! Dynamite! Bombs! I have infinite experience with these kinds of things!" Gokudera bragged, eyes lighting up again, "Remember the one I made last year, I nearly caused an avalanche."

Gokudera began rummaging through a hill of old newspapers, clothes that forgot to make their way into the washer, and several other types of junk.

"Ah, I found it! I knew it was around here!" He smirked, holding up a piece of paper that was partially written on, "Now, we need a plan. What are our objectives?"

"Make explosives of any kind and blow up all muscle scrum!" Yamamoto eagerly replied, his grin never leaving him.

**~ DYNAMITE ~ DYNAMITE ~ DYNAMITE ~ DYNAMITE ~ DYNAMITE ~**

"Nnnghh…"

I let out a soft groan before I opened my eyes and yawned.

_Ehh?! W-Where the heck was I?_

I immediately panicked at the wooden floorboards, the moldy couches, and the dusty floor. I lost my balance, instantly falling off of the couch, onto the wooden ground.

"Itei…" I cried, rubbing my head…then it all came back.

We left home…we were hungry….we slept for….

I looked at a window that let outside; it was dawn..with the sun almost rising. _Oh no! Oh no nonononoonnono!_ We just wasted precious hours sleeping. Even worse, we just slept overnight. Chromes life was depending on us right now and we carelessly wasted it on sleeping! _Oh god!_

I ran over to the couch that Haru was sleeping…or rather sprawled across on and immediately shook her awake.

"Haru! Haru! Haru! Wake up! We overslept!" I yelled, furiously shaking the poor girl awake.

"…Hahi…?" Haru mumbled. Since it took her a few seconds to realize the state we were in now, she immediately lifted her head up, causing it to collide with mines.

"Ow! Ow! Ow!" I cried, doubling over.

"Ah! Tsuna-san! I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" Haru cried, standing up, "Are you all right?"

"Would you guys keep it down…?"

_Hibari's voice. _

"Hibari-san! We overslept! We have to go!" I cried, rubbing my head as I turned to the jet-black haired teen who was leaning against his couch.

When Hibari looked at the window which showed the sunrise, he immediately frowned at this and cursed.

"Damn it…"

I saw Haru run to the kitchen, a few seconds later she came back in with an old backpack that made rattling sounds as she walked.

"What's that?" Hibari asked.

"Food. Chances are we're going to be hungry again!" Haru replied.

"Give it. It'll weigh you down." Hibari said. Haru slightly pouted at this as she handed the backpack over to Hibari who strapped it behind him.

"L-Let's go guys!" I spoke up.

The three of us immediately went through the open window we used to get inside the cabin. In a matter of seconds, we sped down the road and we were off, airborne once again.

_I'm so sorry Chrome! _

**~ SORRY ~ SORRY ~ SORRY ~ SORRY ~ SORRY**_ ~  
><em>

Chrome knew she couldn't go on like this any longer.

Her lungs were burning, her breath was getting heavier each minute, she could taste the copper tang of blood entering her system, and to top it all off, she couldn't feel her legs one bit. But every time she stopped running, a sadistic, pain-hungry Vindice lab worker would zap her with a special electrocuting stick which was probably laced with a myriad of watts.

Chrome closed her big purple eyes; a fog of purple mist surrounded her. Chrome had special mist defying abilities, enabling her to create illusions of various objects; this was why Vindice wanted her so badly. Even though she barely knew how to form or create them, these lab workers were going to force it out of her anyway. The rest of us probably have powers as well, but they haven't been discovered yet unlike Chrome's. Another reason as to why they wanted her so badly.

"Keep running!" One of the many lab workers, who were examining her, ordered.

More and more fog surrounded the purple haired girl as she ran faster. She could feel a dribble of blood going down her chin, but she ignored that. Anything to keep from being electrocuted again.

Chrome opened her eyes and only saw black. Right before she could panic, she felt herself falling down. She let out a blood curdling scream. Her senses were slowly fading her until…

"Its abilities as a mist guardian have improved, but it still can't produce legitimate illusions." Was the first thing she heard.

_It!_ They had the audacity to call her an 'it'! Chrome practically clenched her teeth. The teen squinted her eyes open; blurs of fluorescent lights were attacking her retinas, causing her to jam her eyes closed.

"I can't believe we've finally got a chance to study subject 96! I've been wanting to dichotomize this one for four years!" Another voice said, "I can't wait to get a brain sample…maybe we could find some way to implant its illusions into other subjects using that very sample."

_Brain sample?! _Chrome's heart rate shot up the roof. _They were going to dissect her?_

The young girl let out a barely audible wince, she began trembling; her fear getting the better of her. Chrome felt their merciless excitement. They liked all the things wrong with her, all the ways she wasn't normal. The more they could find in her, the more use she would be of to them.

…_Just like an experiment._

One of the Vindice lab workers placed a straw in her mouth. Not caring what was in that straw, she eagerly drank. She was incredibly thirsty, so thirsty that her mouth felt like sandpaper and the copper taste of blood was still invading her taste buds. Thankful that it was water, Chrome let herself get a few seconds of relaxation while drinking the cold liquid before the lab worker picked her up.

Chrome tired wriggling free of his tight hold, but she was too tired. Too tired to fight. She had to think of a way to get out of here, but how? Vindice was locked up to the point of it being near impossible to ever escape. Plus, she was way too tired to think.

The worker opened the door of her cage and carelessly flopped the girl inside. Chrome let out a pained wince before the cage door was slammed in her face. The purple haired girl laid on her side and curled up in fetal position.

She just had to sleep for a while, then she would devise a plan to escape.


	5. Chapter 5

Even though the shock of waking up hours late to rescue Chrome still harbored my mind, I felt better once we were flying back up in the sky.

_But seriously! How stupid was I, to let us fall asleep so long in the middle of rescuing Chrome, FROM VINDICE! Chrome was frightened to the brim; she needed us, and we just wasted all this time on carelessly sleeping!_ My heart regained its beat, my panic coming back as I thought about all the horrible things the lab workers or whoever were probably doing to Chrome right at this minute.

"We had to rest." Hibari spoke up. This guy could read my mind.

"…For ten hours?" My eyes widened. Hibari was one to glorify sleep; he often took a lot of spontaneous naps during the day, sleeping for quite a long duration.

"We've got another four hours to go, maybe even more. We couldn't have done it in one shot; we're going to have to stop again anyway, right before we get there, and refuel on more supplies."

I nodded my head at Hibari; he did make a point. Flying burned a lot of energy for us, and if we didn't go without food for a long time; we could possibly faint and fall down hundreds of feet from exhaustion. _That would be even worse. _Plus, we needed as much energy as possible to fight those Vindice soldiers and all those Muscle Scrum to a pulp.

_Wait, are we actively going to fight all those people? Was that the plan?_

"Hey, Hibari-san, how exactly are we going do this?" I spoke up, after a long silence.

Hibari furrowed his brows, "What do you mean?"

"Are we going to storm the place once we get there?"

"Yeah, I was wondering what your plan was." Haru spoke up, flying alongside me, "I mean, there's only three of us, and a whole bunch of them. And they probably have more guns. Could we like drive through the gates…or-or even into a building? Or maybe we could wait till nightfall, sneak in, and sneak out with Chrome before anyone notices us."

Haru had quite some fun pondering the crazy thoughts of our possible plan. Though, Hibari kept silent; it was obvious he hadn't devised a full proof plan yet. I didn't want to ask him again, in case he was thinking about one just now. He wouldn't be too happy, at all, about someone carelessly interrupting his thoughts; Hibari _hated_ that. Haru would do that too often.

But I kept on asking myself the same burning question…

_Would his plan work?_

** ~ TSUNAYOSHI ~ TSUNAYOSHI ~ TSUNAYOSHI ~**

The thing about Gokudera was that he could figure out stuff like a real scientist. The guy had a knack for being a real genius. Like I mentioned before, he was smart…like super smart. It made me wonder how a guy like him could possibly respect a dame and clumsy person who was on the lower end like me.

"Chlorine?"

"Check." Yamamoto answered Gokudera, as the silver haired teen scribbled some notes on that sheet of paper he picked up earlier.

"Alarm clock."

"Check."

"Dynamite sticks."

Yamamoto fumbled through a box for a moment, looking for Gokudera's signature dynamites.

"Check!"

"All right, all I need to do now is program it all on the computer. That won't take up too much time." Gokudera replied, grabbing a seat to sit across from the family computer that Iemitsu left them as a gift.

"So what exactly is this plan called?" Yamamoto curiously asked, grabbing another seat to sit next to Gokudera as he eyed the computer, which was just starting up.

"_System CIA_."

**~ GOKUDERA ~ GOKUDERA ~ GOKUDERA~ GOKUDERA ~**

Despite my growing anxiety, especially about Hibari not telling what our plan was yet, it was quite beautiful up here. Not many birds flew this high, so for the most part, except for an occasional falcon or hawk, we were the only ones up in the sky.

This high up, the land below us took on a checkerboard effect, like people would see high up from planes or helicopters. I could see the numerous amounts of farms and regular grassland that helped form that checkerboard. Every once in a while I would pick something small down below and focus on it; that was another great perk about us, we had amazing eyesight, allowing us to see certain objects from incredible distances.

"Hahi, I wonder what Gokudera-kun and Yamamoto are doing right now..." Haru spoke up, another one of her babbling sessions were coming, "Maybe they got the TV working again. I hope they don't feel too bad…I would have- then again, I guess it's easier for them to stay home…"

I bet Gokudera was cursing Hibari's name from dusk to dawn as Yamamoto was giving his best effort to calm him down. At least they were safe; that's all that counts. I absently focused my attention on a flickering shape down on the ground. As my eyesight focused, the flickering shape became a small blob of people. The "people" were a group of normal, everyday kids who looked around my age.

Curious about them, I focused even more on the kids. There were three of them; two bigger kids surrounding a much smaller kid. The bigger kids looked incredibly threatening compared to the small kid who took on a dame and wimpy appearance just like mines. The bigger kids, who were male, sported spiky black hair while the smaller kid, who was male as well, had fluffy blonde hair.

This was when my 'I have to save and protect everyone' demeanor turned on. Something told me that the smaller kid was going to be deep trouble if someone didn't help him soon.

I turned to Hibari; just when I was about to open my mouth to say something.

"No." He said, reading my mind once again. Hibari had a knack for that.

"You didn't know what I was going to say though-"

"Huh? What are you guys talking about?" Haru spoke up, completely oblivious as to what was going on.

"Herbivore here wants to play superhero." Hibari replied, irritation present on his face, "We don't have time for this."

Haru looked at me with big brown eyes, wondering what I was going to say next.

"Don't worry, I won't take long. I'll be right back." I spoke up.

Hibari's irritated frown hardened. As much as that scared me, I wasn't going to back down. I had to help that kid; immediate regret would fill me up if I didn't. The thought of that kid getting beat up or maimed to death by those scary kids, really bothered me. Unlike Hibari who didn't care for such "Herbivorous things", as he liked to put it, I had some empathy; I would go out of my way to help someone in possible danger.

"I'll catch up with you guys before you've gone thirty miles. If anything bad happens, I'll meet you at Lake Fucine." Hibari's face softened, but I knew he was still angry.

Haru nodded her head, "Tsuna-san, I hope you know what you're doing..."

"I hope so too." I quietly replied, "See you guys in a few."

And just like that, I was off.

**~ DANGER ~ DANGER ~ DANGER ~ DANGER ~**

I landed a bit hard, causing me to trip over my feet, doing a total face plant. No matter how powerful I get, I'll always be clumsy Tsuna. I coughed out chunks of soil I accidently swallowed during my clumsy little fall. I pulled my clear, white wings in, through the situated lines I specially cut through either side of my top, feeling them fold back into a tight accordion on either side of my spine. I stood up and dusted off my jeans before taking a quick look at my back to make sure if my wings went all the way through.

I looked around my surroundings and saw that I was close to what looked to be a deserted warehouse which was surrounded by a thick, really thick, layer of forest. I peeked out from the corner of the warehouse and got a much closer look of the three guys.

The two bigger guys looked to be around 16 or 17 while the smaller guy barely looked 13, clearly younger than Chrome.

"I told you not to tell anybody about my little situation with Shoichi!" One of the bigger guys yelled at the younger guy, "It was none of your business. I had to teach that guy a lesson."

The younger boy looked frightened with a very small hint of anger lacing his innocent features, "By beating him up? He looks like he got hit by a car and he didn't even do anything to you." Even though he looked scared out of his mind, the way he stood up against the bigger guy was pretty admirable.

"He talked back to me. People like him think they can get away with such bullshit." The guy said, as the other bigger guy laughed along with him. I squinted my eyes; I swear I could've seen one of them holding a gun at the crook of their arm.

I pursed my lips; I couldn't let this guy get hurt by these hooligans. Yes, my superhero demeanor was on full blast; I didn't care. I let Chrome slip off my hands, I certainly can't let this kid get hurt.

I stepped out from besides the building. The smaller boy saw me and his eyes widened in surprise. However, the two bigger guys didn't see a trace of me, because their backs were turned towards me.

"So, Fuuta, what do you have to say for yourself?" One of the guys spoke up, "I see you're stooping down to Shoichi's level, is there any reason I shouldn't teach you a lesson too?"

My eyes darkened.

"Pathetic." I heard myself say.

The two guys immediately spun back and saw me. My heartbeat rose for a bit, still frightened at the notion of what those two could possibly do to me. It calmed down, once I realized: I'm not like these people; I'm stronger than them; I can fight off muscle scrum while they can't. I could easily beat these humans to a pulp. Plus, Iemitsu frequently taught us many fighting techniques in the past that proved very useful.

The guys surprised faces, changed into amused sneers. Of course, threatening guys like them think a short, scrawny boy like me couldn't possibly be a match for them.

"Shut up, you idiot." One of the guys snapped, "Who do you think you are?"

I nearly flinched at the intensity of his voice, but I had to keep my cool. One mistake and I'd probably be screwed. You see, I'm like a domino effect. I stumble on one of my lines, and the rest of my speech goes to shambles and I end up sounding AND looking like an idiot. It happens with Hibari-san all the time; the guy easily makes me nervous.

"Someone who's going to teach you a lesson, if you don't stop bothering him." I calmly said, while pointing to the smaller boy who was named Fuuta.

The bigger guys hesitated for a moment, then burst into laughter. Fuuta's big eyes trembled, afraid of what was going to happen next. They were really amused at the fact that I, someone who's much smaller than then them, would teach them a lesson.

"Grab him." One of the threatening guys said, after his laughter ceased.

"With pleasure, Mochida Sempai." The other guy smirked, advancing towards me.

This was my cue.

I moved fast, extremely fast. In less than a second's time, I jumped in the air and landed a tough kick on the guy's, who was rather known as Mochida Sempai, chest. Mochida let out a stifled cry and fell back on the ground, clutching his pained chest. I must have hit his chest hard, maybe even broken a bone.

The other guy rushed at me and tried landing a punch on my face but easily missed. I grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and threw him in the air before slamming him down with my foot right before he collided with the ground.

I glanced over and saw Fuuta still standing there at the same spot, looking afraid. His palm was over his mouth, clear shock evident on his face.

"Run!" I yelled at him. "Get out of here!"

Fuuta quickly nodded; he immediately turned and ran, as fast as he could, not daring to look back.

I yelped when I felt a hand grab my arm. I turned back and saw Mochida Sempai's hard grip on me, I yanked it loose right before I punched him, hitting him square on the nose. I winced when I saw blood flowing down both his nostrils.

I hit real hard…

"You're going to be so sorry…" Mochida grunted, picking up his gun from the ground.

That was my cue.

_To Run._

I immediately turned tail and raced for the woods as fast as I could.

I could've easily flew off; I would've been a little speck by the time Mochida and his friend reached the woods. But I couldn't let them see my wings; that certainly wouldn't be good.

I ran through the thick bushes, smacking branches out of my way. I had no idea where I was going or no idea where I was going to end up.

Then the worst possible thing that could've happened, happened.

"Hiee!" I cried; I lost my footing. One of the roots from a tree caused me to trip face down on the ground. _I really need to stop falling down like this._

I heard a gunshot. I flinched, panic was soaring through my whole body.

_What am I doing?! I need to get up!_

I launched myself up and continued to run, increasing the distance between me and those guys. In the next second, there was another gunshot, and almost simultaneously a sudden stabbing pain in my left shoulder. I let out a cry through my clenched teeth.

Actually, this was the worst possible thing that could happen.

I looked over to my shoulder and nearly fainted from the amount of blood that was forming on my left sleeve.

_They shot me! I can't believe they actually shot me!_

Not noticing where I was going because I was too occupied with my new injury, I slipped down a rather steep slope, causing me to collide through bushes, vines, and rocks. I tried grabbing just about anything to keep me from falling further, but it was no use, especially when I could barely move my left arm.

Finally, I came to a stop at an overgrown ravine. I was covered by vines and shrubs.

I stood still, catching my breath. I had to think of something, something to get me out of this mess. Did Hibari's words backfire on me? I heard the loud, reckless footsteps of Mochida and his equally menacing friend. I tracked their steps clearly as they ran right past where I fell.

I silently thanked whoever, as those guys wouldn't be bothering me anymore. But now I had another problem…

They shot me. I could barely move that arm and it hurt so bad. I tried stretching my left wing as well, only to bite my bottom lip from letting out a scream. It was hit as well.

Slowly I stood up, holding my breath, anything to keep me from screaming like a raved lunatic. I had to get out of here quickly. I swallowed and groaned as I realized that Haru and Hibari were probably wondering where the heck I was.

And to top it all off, Chrome was waiting for us too.

Iemitsu said it was my job to protect my family…

…_and I was just about failing._

**~ FAMILY ~ FAMILY ~ FAMILY ~ FAMILY ~ FAMILY ~**

"Hibari-san? I'm really hungry..." Haru sighed, her stomach not ceasing to growl. It had almost been an hour since I had left them. Haru didn't understand exactly as to why or where I left.

Hibari frowned, then nodded curtly. He motioned his head towards a general direction. Haru banked slightly and followed him. The two were coming up on some mountainous cliffs. Hibari headed towards a shadowy indentation, his dark wings easily camouflaging with it. Haru carefully slowed down for a landing. As they got closer, the indentation turned into a broad, shallow cave.

The brown haired girl ducked as she set down inside. Hibari landed silently beside her, after he let Haru go in first. Haru sat down as Hibari took off the backpack before handing her food.

"Ah! Food! Finally!" Haru exclaimed, eagerly grabbing the contents Hibari was giving her.

He waved a chocolate bar in front of her, not looking Haru in the eye. Haru squealed happily as she grabbed the bar from Hibari, "Hahi! Hibari-san, where did you find this? You must have been hiding it! You didn't say anything…and all this time you had chocolate. Oh my god, this is so good…desu!"

Hibari rolled his eyes, "Just be quiet and eat your food."

"Fine." Haru pouted, "But you're missing out!"

After a few minutes of silence, Haru characteristically broke it.

"So where did Tsuna-san exactly go? Why'd he go down there…he-he should be back by now. What are we going to do if he doesn't come back any time soon-?"

"He saw someone in trouble, so he went to help." Hibari interrupted, then pressed his eyebrows together, "I'm sure he got himself into even more unnecessary trouble. Class A herbivore."

"So we have to wait for him?" Haru ignored the growing irritation in Hibari's tone of voice.

"What else?" Hibari said, his frown still evident on his face.

Haru noticed she could see the edge of Lake Fucine off to her left.

"This is Lake Fucine?"

Hibari didn't reply, instead he crossed his arms and closed his eyes.

"Hahi! It's so beautiful." Haru stood up; her head barely touched the ceiling of the cave. She walked outside of the cave, onto the ledge to get a better look of the lake. Haru's beaming face slowly faded once she thought about where Tsuna could possibly be. What was so important about what he had to do that was more important than Chrome? The brown haired girl let out a sigh. She had no idea how long they would possibly wait.

Once Haru was going to walk a bit further to see the lake closer her eyes widened and her whole body froze.

"Hi-Hibari-san…"

The prefect opened his eyes when he heard Haru's frightened voice. He immediately stood up and ducked his head, making sure not to collide with the cave ceiling. He went towards opening and saw a ledge that curved upwards towards the top of the cliff. Among the ledge were several nests, nests that had to be at least two feet across. Most of the nests had large fuzzy birds, larger than the average bird. They had to have at most a wingspan of 5 feet. Smaller fledglings went about in the nests as well. The birds caught sight of the two who were at the edge of the cave in plain view.

"What are those?"

"I'm not sure." Hibari curtly replied. He quickly glanced at Haru who had the most terrified look in her face. Her knees were buckling below her, her hands clutched in fists which were in front of her mouth, her large brown irises kept shifting left to right.

Haru so badly wanted to run but was afraid that those giant birds would attack her.

"Hi-Hibari-san do you think-"

Hibari quickly shushed Haru; the skylark lowered himself next to her. Haru raised her eyebrows at his sudden but careful movement. He had his eyes on the birds, making sure to eye their every movement. Haru couldn't take this anymore, it felt like they were stuck in the same position for quite some time; she was itching for Hibari to do something. The brown haired girl barely gasped when she saw Hibari slowly extend one of his black wings. The eyes of the giant birds immediately spun their heads in unison noticing the skylark's raven wing.

"I'm letting them catch my scent."

Haru nodded her head as she kept her eyes on Hibari. After a while, the birds seemed to relax a bit. Some of them went back to feeding their offspring while the others flew in search of more food.

"Eww…!"

One of the birds carried a dismembered body of a gopher; he landed in one of the nests before hold the body above its offspring. The smaller birds willingly tore the gopher body apart, quickly devouring it.

"Hahi, that's so gross!" Haru cried, looking away.

Hibari couldn't help but to be amused by Haru's exaggerated squirming, he shook his head trying his best not to break out a smile. After another while of looking at the birds, Haru nearly jumped when she realized what they really needed to do. She slightly bowed her head down and wrapped her arms around her waist.

"Hibari-san…Chrome is waiting for us…"

The raven haired skylark looked down at Haru; he nodded his head then tsked. He leaned against the side of the cave and crossed his arms. He knew Tsunayoshi was still missing and that meant they couldn't go forth to Chrome unless he was with them. _What was taking him so long?_

"…At night we're supposed to be asleep at our room...talking and telling jokes. She's like a sister to me. I'm really scared for her right now desu…"

"It's a shame that herbivore is taking so long." Hibari spoke up, "…I can't believe him."

The brown haired girl let out a huff and curled her hands into fists. She had a determined look on her face; quite a difference from the sullen expression she had a few minutes ago, "Tsuna-san will come back! I know it!"

Hibari didn't reply but went back into the cave. Haru noticed this and followed suit.

"I'm going to sleep."

"Ah…good night Hibari-san."

**~ SKYLARK ~ SKYLARK ~ SKYLARK ~ SKYLARK ~ SKYLARK ~**

This had to be the worst day I'd ever had. We get ambushed by Mokuro Rokudo which we haven't seen in YEARS, Chrome gets taken away by him, and then I get shot while trying to rescue another guy on my way to rescue to Chrome. I squeezed my eyes shut and let out a muffled groan; my shoulder was still bleeding even after pressing on it for a while. Every time I slightly moved my hand off of it, blood would pour out. I sighed in relief as I realized those guys were far off, but how was I going to stop this bleeding?

"Oh man…"

I felt around my shoulder and wing. From what I could tell, the shot didn't lodge inside, thank goodness, but it didn't scrape a good deal of flesh from my left arm. I could barely move my left wing as well; the bullet must have grazed that area too. It was getting late; I looked up and saw that the sun was getting ready to set. Chrome was somewhere hours way, being subjected to the horrendous Vindice, wondering where the hell we were probably. I clenched my teeth and closed my eyes shut.

I couldn't fly, my left wing was useless. This meant I couldn't catch up to Hibari-san and Haru. This was all my fault; Hibari was right. I was trying to play hero as usual. That often got me into lots of trouble, but nope, I never listened. I was too intent on protecting those who couldn't protect themselves at the moment. Hibari was probably furious right now; ready to bite me to death as soon as he could.

I was slowly making my way through wet woods, trying to brush tree branches from up ahead. I pressed my other hand against my stomach as it growled. I sighed realizing how hungry I was along with the fact of how freezing and damp with rain I was.

A minute later I blinked and wiped my eyes.

There were lights ahead. I squint my eyes, trying to see through the misty fog that the rain left behind. Those lights belonged to a house. It was a house. I slightly twitched when I saw a figure go past the window of the house.

It was Fuuta. The guy from earlier. This must have been his house. I sighed in relief, he got home safely. If I had let those horrible guys beat him up, I would have never forgiven myself. I kept myself hidden behind some trees, completely out of sight from Fuuta. I didn't want him to see me creepily stalking him. I nearly gasped when I saw him come out of the house; I kept myself hidden even further if that was possible.

The younger boy held an umbrella, his back facing me. He picked up firewood which was placed in a box.

I shivered as I felt the icy rain fall down on me. Oh man…what do I do…? I can't stay here forever…

I gulped. Gahh…I can't believe I'm doing this. I was hurt, badly and I needed to get to Hibari and Haru as fast as I could.

I took a deep breath. Stood up from behind the trees and began to walk very slowly and very quietly towards Fuuta.


	6. Chapter 6

"Okay…two more blood samples and the blood test component will be completed…"

'_When will this be over? Where are you boss…?_' Chrome hugged her knees to her chest. The purple haired girl kept her large circular purple eyes to the floor of the cage she was locked in. The minute she heard more footsteps, she immediately looked up as another lab man approached her and peered at her through the bars. She backed away further and further until she reached the back corner of the cage. She didn't want those lab men to touch her again…ever.

The lab man noticed Chrome's cheek which had a large reddened bruise.

The man turned to the other lab people who were doing the blood tests not too far from her cage, "What happened to it?"

"It bit one of Iris's lab workers." One of the lab people replied, "He slapped her across the face."

Chrome touched her cheek which throbbed each time she tried to feel it. His slap still stung. However, she was glad that she bit him. She hated all these people…every single one of them in this whole place.

"That idiot. Does he know how valuable this subject is? This is subject 96, do you realize how long we've been looking for it? You tell him not to damage the merchandise."

The lab man went in closer to Chrome's cage once again. She didn't know what to do; she didn't want any of these people near her…at all. She crouched even further to the back corner if that was possible. Chrome squeezed her eyes shut when she felt her stomach grumble; all day she had nothing to eat and barely even drink. They took blood from her arm, but then she tried fighting them off which ended in her biting one of them. In the end, they managed to take three doses of blood from her arm.

Chrome felt tears fill up her eye. No, she wasn't going to cry, not now. She had to be strong.

The lab guy came closer and held a needle. Chrome tensed, but slowly eased herself when the man gently made his way towards her without any aggression.

"This won't hurt. Honest."

Chrome slowly nodded her head. She was surprised…this lab guy didn't seem rude at all. He had a gentle composure to him, compared to the others she dealt with. The purple haired girl turned away, but kept her arm outstretched for him to inject the properties of the needle into her.

He was right, it didn't hurt. Chrome eased herself once the man left with the needle; he made his way towards the other lab workers.

~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~

"Okay." Gokudera said, "Do you have the explosive package?"

Yamamoto paused for a moment then resumed once he found a small metal box behind Gokudera, "Check!"

"We have to be careful with that, it's very fragile."

Gokudera carefully picked up the box, "Nails?"

"Check." Yamamoto replied as he grabbed a jarful of nails he brought.

"Tarp?

"Check." Yamamoto nodded, giving Gokudera a thumbs up. "This is going to be full proof. Those muscle scrum won't know what hit them."

"I know," Gokudera agreed; he was always confident in his skill sets, maybe too confident. "I think we have everything."

"So what do we do next?"

"All we need to do is fly out and stay out of sight just in case muscle scrum are ahead of their game. Maybe Mukuro brought men to keep watch while he's gone, who knows, we can bomb them too."

Yamamoto gave out a nervous laugh at Gokudera's unfaltering voice towards his last sentence. He became very intent on killing those who dared to harm his family, especially Juudaime.

"We can lay nails around the hills and roads while we set up the tarp and oil." Gokudera continued, "All we have to do is make sure to not get caught."

"Ah! Gokudera," Yamamoto said as he peered out the window, "It's nighttime, and that means we can get on with the plan now."

"You mean system CAI. Don't forget it, baseball idiot." Gokudera smirked as he held onto the jar, "Now get the tarp and oil. I'll grab the bombs."

Gokudera grabbed a large bag which contained all his handmade bombs along with the same fragile metal box. He slung the bag over his shoulders while being careful with the box and jar.

"What's the box for again?"

Gokudera let out an agitated sigh. Sometimes- a lot of times Yamamoto was too slow for his own good, "It's the remote control for the bombs. Let's go, we don't have much time."

Yamamoto nodded before opening the window in front of them wide enough for them to get out. He was nervous but excited all at the same time; he couldn't wait for the plan to be executed. Gokudera, on the other hand, had no bout of nervousness in him; he was ready to show off his bombing skills. Even though he couldn't be of service to Juudaime at the moment, he was glad he could still help him.

Gokudera launched himself out of the window into the night air. The moonlight shone on his silver wings. Yamamoto followed suit and flew out of the window as well.

They were ready to do this.

**~ SYSTEM CAI ~ SYSTEM CAI ~ SYSTEM CAI ~ SYSTEM CAI ~**

"Um, Fuuta…?"

The shorter boy immediately stiffened and turned back. I slowly stepped forward, so he could get a better look at me. I can't believe this…I can't believe I'm doing this.

"It's me…from earlier." I nervously said; I was hoping to god he wouldn't make a run for it back to his house to alert his parents that some creep was outside his house. I seriously hoped he recognized me…

Fuuta readjusted the stack of firewood on his arm as he barely struggled to carry them while holding onto his umbrella t shield from the rain. I was waiting for him to say something.

After what seemed to be like an eternity, he replied, "Oh, yeah…t-thanks for helping me."

He seemed just as nervous as I was.

"Are you okay?" He squinted, getting a better look at me. He saw my tired, disheveled look, "Do you need any help?"

"I'm okay." I immediately replied, then nearly slapped myself for saying such a thing, "I- I mean…well…I guess I need help."

Fuuta widened his eyes, "Did those guys…?"

"Yeah…one of them managed to graze my shoulder with a bullet." I said as I inched closer to him.

The younger boy immediately gasped and placed his hand over his mouth, "You're hurt! Why didn't you go to the hospital? Ah…you should come in!"

Fuuta urged me to follow him into the front door of the house. I hesitated. All these years we've lived with Iemitsu, we've never been to anyone else's house…ever. What if they found out about our…you know …? That would lead to so much trouble, so much that I possibly couldn't think of. We couldn't trust anyone. This was an emergency though, I was bleeding like crazy and I knew I couldn't go to a regular hospital. That would've been even worse; they'd find out about our wings and turn us in to some experimenting institution like the Vindice. I couldn't risk that. This was my only bet.

I followed Fuuta.

When I made my first step into the house; I froze when saw lights ahead of the hallway that led into a possible living room. Like I said, we've never been into another person's house, one that was still occupied with inhabitants. I could turn and run away if I wanted to…maybe I was getting myself into something that I didn't need to get myself into.

However, I was losing blood…fast. I was extremely cold and starving. I needed help ASAP.

"Are your parents home?" I asked.

"Yes, it's just me and my mom though." Fuuta replied, "She can help. Come on."

Fuuta held onto my hand and brought me inside; I nearly jumped back from the sudden gesture, but immediately calmed down. He was awfully trusting. The house was very warm and toasty, which was such a relief after getting out from the cold rain.

"Can you walk okay?"

"Hai…" I replied, giving him a nod. I did feel a bit lightheaded, but I could still walk fine. I kept my right hand on my left shoulder.

I let out a strained gasp when I realized what I was seeing.

"Oh…oh my god! Is that blood?!" Fuuta cried. He saw a pool of blood around my sleeve; some of it even managed to make red puddles on the floor, "Momma! Momma! There's someone here that needs help!"

I froze for what seemed to be the 100th time. I was still having second thoughts on whether I should run or not.

**~ FUUTA ~ FUUTA ~ FUUTA ~ FUUTA ~ FUUTA ~**

"Do you think this string will hold?" Yamamoto whispered.

Gokudera placed one of his special dynamite bombs onto thin piece of string Yamamoto held up. The dynamite bombs had hooks attached to it so the string could hold the bombs. He attached the string and tied it secure to a tree branch.

"Okay, this is where the bombs will start, when I press the control, the bombs will fly along the string onto below because of their rocket launchers. The bombs will explode once they reach the bottom because of the self timer I implemented." Gokudera replied, "The enemy won't be able to see us or the string for that matter since it's so thin."

"Alright." Yamamoto replied, surprised that Gokudera didn't use too much of a theoretical approach to explain this. He often did that which confused the heck out of everyone else, "I'll attach the rest of the bombs to the string."

"Hurry it up, I'll add the nails onto the ground. After that we'll place the tarp and oil."

Gokudera didn't like to admit or acknowledge it at all but he and Yamamoto made a good team when they were at hard work. It was strange, especially since "Juudaime" wasn't with them. He often forced the two, or Gokudera alone, to get along with Yamamoto. It was really surprising to Yamamoto; I guess Gokudera was too intent on his System CAI plan to yell profanities to him.

As Gokudera scattered the nails across the roads and hills that lay near their house; he thought about where Juudaime might be by now. He hoped nothing had gone wrong…that Vindice lab hadn't gotten hold of Chrome. He hoped that Juudaime had rescued Chrome by now.

A few moments passed by.

"You have the bombs done yet?"

"Yes I do." Yamamoto replied as he hopped over to where Gokudera was. He laid out the tarps on the road; where muscle scrum and some of Mokuro's men would possibly come. Yamamoto grabbed the large container of oil and handed it to Gokudera who poured it onto the tarps.

"That should do it." Gokudera said, brushing his hands off, "Juudaime would be so proud!"

It was silent for a while.

"I don't think anyone's coming tonight. We might have to wait until tomorrow. Right now we should keep out of sight."

"Sounds good. We'll need a lot of rest."

"We're not going to sleep idiot. They might come while we're asleep. All we need to do is wait."

**~ FUUTA ~ FUUTA ~ FUUTA ~ FUUTA ~ FUUTA ~**

A woman with short brunette hair appeared from the top of the flight of stairs, her eyes were full of worry, "Fuuta? What's wrong?!"

"Momma, this is-"

"Tsuna." I interrupted. Shoot! Why did I give out my real name? Gahh I'm so stupid!

"This is my friend Tsuna. He's the one who saved me from Mochida-Sempai…but I think he shot him."

"Oh dear…!" The woman exclaimed; she was just as panicked as Fuuta was. She immediately came down the stairs. It seems she's never seen anything like this before, "Do you want me to call your parents?"

"Uh…" I paused. As you knew, I had no parents. Iemitsu, my only guardian, passed away, so I had no idea what to say.

Then Fuuta's mom saw my bloodstained sweater I wore. Her large brown eyes widened even more, if that was possible. She looked at my face and saw the amount of scratches it had. She saw my spikey brown hair which was quite disheveled.

"Hold on a second, let me get my kit. Tsuna, go take off your shoes and go with Fuuta to the bathroom."

I abided by taking off my sneakers. I grimaced once I realized how wet my socks were. My feet were so cold from the wet fabric. Fuuta let me into a bathroom which was quite spacey, compared to the one we had at my house.

Fuuta's mom came in with what looked to be like a first aid kit.

"Fuuta-kun can you go get Tsuna some juice? He'll probably need sugar and fluids from the amount of blood he lost."

Fuuta nodded and made his way to the kitchen. I was so surprised at how accommodating they were to me…a stranger. After all the unfortunate events that happened, I was incredibly surprised by this stroke of luck.

"I take it you don't want me to call your parents?" Fuuta's mom said softly. She noticed my hesitation when she asked earlier. She cut into my sweatshirt so she could work with my wound better.

"Eto…no." I replied.

"Or the police, either, right?"

How did she know?

"Ahaha…there's no need to get them involved," I nervously chuckled, "I think the bullet only scratched me. It didn't go in."

"Ara, you're right, but it grazed pretty deep and it's messy. You lost a lot of blood…and over here-" I sat frozen, staring straight ahead. _My wings._ Ugh! How could I forget? She was cutting through my shirt…that meant she could probably see them sooner or later. I was taking such a huge risk here…such a big risk. Nobody outside my family has ever seen them and for a very good and obvious reason too, but by the look of it Fuuta's mom knew what she was doing; she could heal my cut and I would be okay.

I let out a relieved sigh when I realized I wore a tank top under my sweatshirt my wings were still hidden from it.

"Here you go." I looked up and saw Fuuta hand me a large glass of orange juice. My face lit up before I chugged the juice down. I was so thirsty and hungry at the same time. It has been hours…maybe even nearly a day since I've eaten or drank anything. The cold, sugary drink felt so good.

"What's-" Fuuta's mom began; my attention snapped back. Her fingers skimmed across the edge of my white wing which was folded and barely hidden behind my tank top she cut through by now. My eyes widened; all I could do was stare down.

She found out…of course.

Fuuta's mom turned me slightly, making me face her.

"Tsuna...what's this?" She gently touched the feathers of my wing that was barely visible.

I swallowed hard. It felt like sandpaper going down my throat, even though I had a drink just a few seconds ago. What were they going to do? What was I going to do? Were they going to call somebody about this? Was I going to be taken away to some facility to be tested on? I slowly looked away from her before I clenched my fists and grimaced. I could feel beads of sweat leave my face. I could leave the house right now if I wanted to, I could escape.

"It's a wing…" My voice was barely audible. I let myself talk before I could think about what I was going to say, "A-ano…my-my wing. It got hurt too."

I probably sounded like a crazy person by now. I closed my eyes and carefully extended my wing; I let out a quiet ow as I extended it. It hurt like hell.

Their eyes widened.

"Eh…?" Fuuta stared at my wings; so did his mom; they could not keep their eyes off.

His mom examined it closely trying her best to keep a calm composure. I was panicking. More beads of sweat fell down my face; my fists were so tight that they were practically turning red.

"Your wing is grazed too." She quietly said, gently holding part of it, "I think the gunshot fractured a bit of the bone."

I continued to look at the floor; what do I say? I can't believe I actually put myself into this situation. Hibari was going to kill me; he was going to bite me to death! I shortly glanced over at Fuuta's mom, waiting for her to continue.

"Alright Tsuna, I'm going to clean the wounds and stop the bleeding."

I was so surprised. She didn't freak out or anything. I wonder what they were thinking though…I was even more surprised at the fact about how caring they were.

"Okay…" I replied, nodding my head, "Thank you."

**~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~**

"Hey! Yamamoto, wake up!," Gokudera whispered. The taller male stood beside him, half asleep against the tree they hid in during the night. Gokudera furiously shook him awake.

"Gokudera?" Yamamoto let out a yawn before he perched himself up, "What happened?"

It was early morning; the sun had just risen. Gokudera was awake the entire nght while Yamamoto himself managed to fall asleep several times throughout the watch. He saw that the strings with the attached bombs which were connected from the tree to the ground were still there. Yamamoto let out a gasp when he saw two men with bandaged faces and cloaks. They were far, but close enough for him to see. A black vehicle towing a large carriage slowly followed them.

"Do you see them?"

"Yeah, are they the first to come?" Yamamoto asked.

Gokudera nodded. Yamamoto was right which meant that their plan was going to be executed; Mokuro did request some of his men to search their home…either to kidnap or kill them. Gokudera didn't like to admit it but he had nightmares about Vindice taking them back to their headquarters to perform more inhumane experiments on them.

"They're coming faster." Gokudera noticed the increased pace of steps in the men. The vehicle drove faster too, "Really fast."

Yamamoto hid further behind the tree, Gokudera did the same; they had to stay hidden at all costs or else their plan would be futile. The men would see them and probably notice something suspicious going on. Gokudera kept on a grin; this was what they needed. The faster they went, the slicker the oil would be for them.

They made their way up the hill, near their house and the tree they were in.

"They're coming close. Alright in 3 2 1, you press the bomb button on the control and the bombs go off."

Yamamoto watched tensely as the Vendicare soldiers increased their pace more and more along with the car behind them. Gokudera was practically beaming with excitement.

"Okay…"

"Three."

Yamamoto placed his finger on the trigger, ready to press it at any minute. He was also excited but more tense.

"Two."

They were so close. In a moment the car lost its control because of the oil placed on the tarp; it skidded across the road, crashing right into the soldiers who lost their balance and fell over.

"One!"

Yamamoto pressed the button, right when the soldiers noticed the line of bombs on the barely visible string. The bombs immediately sped down, using the rocket launchers installed in them. Since the men had fallen, they had nowhere to run at the moment. The bombs exploded right on them. Gokudera and Yamamoto immediately covered their ears at the sound of the loud explosion. The car fell off the cliff from the intensity of the bomb, leaving the carriage it towed behind.

"Yabe!" Yamamoto exclaimed.

Muscle scrum appeared from the cages that were being hauled in the carriage by the car.

"Use the second set of bombs!" Gokudera shouted.

Yamamoto pressed another button; they covered their ears as another set of bombs skidded down another string. Smoke emitted from the back as they flew down. The bombs exploded creating another cloud of smoke. The muscle scrum let out pained cries before they were completely knocked out.

"Damn that was amazing!" Gokudera exclaimed, "Did you see that car, it completely flew off the mountain!"

Yamamoto laughed at Gokudera's blatant excitement. His irises were dancing as his whole face lit up. However, his laughter turned into a frown.

"Gokudera I see more muscle scrum and soldiers!"

A dozens Vindice soldiers along with muscle scrum were making their way up. They held the scrum by shackles, making sure not to lose control of the manmade monsters. They definitely heard the explosions.

"Shit!"

Gokudera looked up and saw a several large choppers in midair, not too far from the soldiers. He pointed at the chopper, "That's our goal. We need to detonate those."

"I have spare bombs at the old cabin. We can use those."

"Good idea."

Gokudera made his way out of the tree; Yamamoto followed suit.

An old abandoned cabin sat not too far from their house. It was kind of a garage to them; they would store items just in case an emergency came up. This was the perfect opportunity. Once they reached the cabin, Yamamoto carefully placed the bomb control on the floor.

"How do we do this…?" Gokudera quietly said, "They'll see us coming to their choppers."

The silver haired teen placed his hand on his chin, trying to conjure up another full proof execution for System CAI. His thoughts were interrupted when they felt slight rumbling on the floor of the cabin. Gokudera and Yamamoto froze.

"What was that?" Gokudera whispered; he quickly grabbed several bombs that lay next to him.

The rumbling stopped.

Yamamoto looked at Gokudera, but quickly turned his head to the locked door which began to rumble, "Someone's coming in."

"Shit-!"

With a kick, the door flew open. Gokudera held onto his bombs, each intertwined between his fingers. Yamamoto had his baseball bat on hand. Two Vindice soldiers managed to break in. Gokudera scanned the entire cabin looking for an escape. The windows were too small. They couldn't possibly fly through the ceiling…

The soldiers came closer and closer, holding their long rifle guns.

That was when Gokudera's special training from Iemitsu kicked in. In a matter of seconds he lit all his bombs and threw them towards the soldiers. They easily evaded the explosives as they blew a large opening in the cabin.

"Gokudera behind you!"

Gokudera turned around and saw one of the soldiers with a gun, pointed right at him.


	7. Chapter 7

**TWO CHAPTERS IN ONE DAY. I decided I would be generous and update with another one.**

**~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~**

Haru woke up and let out a yawn before rubbing her groggy eyes awake. She looked at the opening of the cave; the sun was barely risen. Then it dawned on her…

Hibari-san wasn't here.

"Hahi…! Hibari-san!" Haru cried; she crawled around searching all the nooks and crannies of the small cave they were in.

Her heart was pounding harder and harder as each moment had gone by. First Chrome, then Tsuna-san, then Hibari-san! This could not be happening!

"Hibari-san!" She yelled as she stood up and made her way out of the cave. She looked around and saw no sign of him. She saw that the giant birds from yesterday were asleep in their nests. Now she was plain frightened. Haru was all alone…she continued to look around, but there was still no sign.

Her eyes began to water as she ran back into the cave.

"Hib-!"

"…what are you yelling for?"

"Hahi!" Haru jumped out of her skin when she realized Hibari was standing right behind her. He just landed at the cave entrance, an awfully silent landing. That's how Hibari was.

"I-I thought you were gone! You nearly gave me a heart attack!"

The raven haired male sighed.

When Haru was about to say more, she felt her stomach growl.

"I'm hungry…" She said.

Hibari faced the outside of the cave, "There's a town about five minutes away from here. We can grab food there."

"Yes!" Haru pumped her fists in the air.

Hibari made his way out of the cave and allowed his wings to spread before picking up; Haru followed suit, her shorter brown speckled wings spreading as well. Haru looked below and saw the hills surround the clear blue lake. The clouds below them barely covered the sight.

A few minutes passed and they could see a highway. Several shops and a gas station weren't too far off; it must have been a rest shop. Haru saw Hibari flying towards a specific fast food shop; behind it was a large dumpster. From all the way up they could see an employee throwing out a myriad of food from yesterday that had been untouched. Hibari motioned for Haru to fly down once the worker was out of sight.

Hibari silently landed on the edge of the dumpster which was opened while Haru landed on the ground, but less gracefully creating some noise. Hibari folding his wings in; Haru followed.

"Hahi! There's so much food in here!" Haru beamed, "How could they throw away all this? There's so much unwrapped food!"

"Shh! Someone might hear us." Hibari interrupted, sometimes that girl could be too loud for her own good. Her squeaky voice didn't help.

"Sorry…" Haru whispered, rattled through all the thrown away food "Ahh! There's a lot of burgers…I don't know if I could eat those desu…because of those birds. Oooh but there's salad and chocolate chip cookies…"

The raven haired male shook his head; there was no getting this girl to be quiet.

After grabbing as much food as they could hold, Hibari placed some of it into his backpack while Haru stuffed some into her sweater pockets. Afterwards they flew back to the cave as they were no signs of people around the rest stop they landed at.

"I'm so full…" Haru said, as she clutched her stomach; two empty salad trays and an empty chocolate chip cookie container sat beside her. Hibari continued to eat a hamburger patty in silence; it had to be his fourth one by now. Haru realized the predicament they were in now she nervously intertwined her fingers while crossing her thumbs back and forth.

"We need to find Tsuna-san..." Haru spoke up, "He must have run into something."

Hibari pulled his attention away from the outside of the cave and faced Haru, he was silent.

"Hibari-san?"

"Where would he be?" He spoke up, "That's the problem."

"Maybe we could make our way back to where he left us-"

"We have to do it quick, really quick. Just in case he makes his way back here." Hibari interrupted.

Haru nodded. She wondered what Tsuna could have got into…did he get kidnapped? Did Mukuro find him again and decide to take him hostage? Hibari stood up, getting ready to fly out of the cave.

"Ah…wait for me Hibari-san!" Haru cried, just as he flew out. Haru took a small running leap before extending her wings.

**~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~**

I opened my eyes. I laid on the guest room's bed of Fuuta's house. I felt my shoulder, the bandages were still tight and secure. I sighed in relief. I muffled my head against the thick bed sheets; it felt so comfortable. My eyes widened, right now I had to leave to get Hibari and Haru; they must have been incredibly furious by now. I grimaced at the thought; an anxious Haru asking millions of questions and a livid Hibari ready to beat me senseless with his tonfas.

I stood up on the bed, slightly flinching from the pain on my shoulder and wing. Fuuta's mom managed to disinfect the cut and heal it.

"Itei…" I winced as I tried touching my shoulder; it hurt, but not too bad.

I still had thoughts about how Fuuta and his mom were so casual about my…wings. They didn't freak out or call anyone; that's what really surprised me. Instead, his mom went ahead and fixed my cuts. It reminded me so much of Iemitsu. Whenever we'd get injured from training, he would individually fix our cuts then carefully bandage us. I squeezed my eyes shut, feeling tears build up. He was a very special father to us.

I missed him so much.

I snapped out of my thoughts when I saw the door slowly open up. I immediately stuffed myself between the bed sheets, pretending to fall back asleep. I kept my eyes half open.

Fuuta's brown eyes peeked through the door, "I think he's awake..."

I opened my eyes.

The door opened more; Fuuta came in with his mom following.

"Good morning Tsuna-kun." His mom greeted, "Are you hungry?"

Ahhh…just when I was going to tell them I need to go. I couldn't refuse though. They made me feel so much at home and I was hungry…as usual. We easily burned fuel; we got hungry way too often and often at the most inconvenient times.

"Hai…" I nodded, as I stood up from my lying position.

"We have pancakes, sausage, eggs, and bacon!" Fuuta chimed.

"Thank you." I grinned.

"You're welcome." Fuuta's mom replied.

They left the room to go back downstairs.

Once I slipped out of my bed sheets, I straightened my pink pajamas that Fuuta's mom gave me since Fuuta's spare was too small for me. The sleeves of the pajamas went drooped over my hands while the pants went way below my feet. I looked the side of my bed; my jeans were washed; Fuuta's mom offered me one of Fuuta's large sweaters since she cut into my old one.

I widened my eyes when I saw two slits cut into the back of the sweater. After a moment, I relaxed and smiled.

**~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~**

Gokudera and Yamamoto stood surrounded by Vindice soldiers and muscle scrum. Parts of the cabin they resided in were torn from the sudden entrance of them. The two were definitely outnumbered; they had to escape. Gokudera lit one of his bombs; he looked up at the ceiling. Yamamoto followed Gokudera movements; he nodded noticing Gokudera's head nod towards the ceiling.

Gokudera swiftly threw the bomb towards the ceiling, causing it to explode. The two covered their heads with their arms to avoid being hit from the rubble.

"Come on!" Gokudera yelled as he flew straight up. In a split second, they both were airborne.

"Yamamoto!"

One of the muscle scrum extended their arms, grabbing Yamamoto's leg in the process. Yamamoto tried wriggling free, but it was no use; they had a tight hold on him.

"Shit!"

Gokudera lit another few bombs and threw them towards the muscle scrum. Yamamoto used his other leg to kick himself free. He lost his footing when he managed to reach part of the roof that didn't explode; he fell sideways rolling down the roof and onto the ground. Yamamoto nearly cursed when he saw a muscle scrum heading his way as he lay on the ground. He grabbed his baseball that he held at the back of him and threw it, with force, at the scrum who toppled over from the hard impact. He immediately jumped from the ground and flew towards Gokudera.

"Let's go!" Gokudera shouted.

They were airborne once again.

**~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~**

Chrome let out heavy pants; she could hardly breathe. They forced her out again to create more illusions. It took a lot of her strength out. She heard a long jarring bell ring above her; she shut her eyes and nearly covered her ears. She had been doing this for the whole day; she couldn't take it anymore. She was hungry, every single muscle in her body ached. It didn't help that her muscles were sore from what she had to do yesterday.

They placed her into a different room this time; it looked like a traditional gym. Every time they rang a bell, they made her conjure up specific illusions. Ones ranging from natural phenomena's such as changing the room into an illusion of a forest or ones that required her to turn certain objects into different ones. However, these illusions were very weak; they only lasted for a few seconds and they were barely noticeable. They placed her on a time limit, if she went too slow, they would send an electric shock throughout her body. It felt as if she got shocked and burned at the same time; it was the worst feeling ever.

After a while, they'd give her a small break which came with a sip of water. That barely helped.

Chrome stumbled onto the ground, still catching her breath. She held her hand over her chest; it stung. Everywhere hurt. She gritted her teeth and clenched her fist. All of this was so barbaric…all of it. The talk of some lab workers caught her attention. With curiosity, she listened.

"Maybe we can let in a muscle scrum or another one of our experiments in…to see how they react with its illusions." One of them said.

"Yes! That would be a great idea. We can see what illusions they will force out of it and which ones it will use out of instinct." Another replied. There was a sickening excitement in their voices; it angered Chrome.

"We'll be doing another mist trial for subject 96. Its break is just about up."

The purple haired girl looked up. She was still too tired to do anything. Her eyes widened when she saw one of them give her a sip of water; she eagerly took in as much as she could. She was too thirsty for words. One of the lab workers pulled her up; Chrome winced as she felt how sore her legs and arms were.

Her next trial.

She had to turn the room into a dizzying vortex. She could do this. The bell rang.

Chrome concentrated. Trying to think about what she knew so far when it came to her illusions. She closed her eyes; she was only a rookie at this. After a few moments, she opened her eyes, the room still looked the same. Chrome closed her eyes again trying to perfect this illusion. Instead she felt surges of electricity hit her body. She let out a blood curdling scream, falling unconscious to the ground.

A few moments past, Chrome was half awake by now. She heard several workers talking about whether they should extract her brain or not.

A voice said, "No…we can't dissect her brain. Not yet." The voice laughed. The voice sounded…very familiar. She heard it somewhere…a long time ago. When she was at home with her family…

Chrome blinked her eyes open. She nearly fainted when she saw who was outside her cage. Her heart felt as if it were going to lurch out of her stomach any minute. There was a man with very slight tanned skin, skin that became tanned over the years from excessive sun exposure…he had short blonde hair and scruffy facial hair that was blonde as well. He looked so familiar…

_"Hello, Nagi. It's been a long time." _SaidIemitsu.

Their caretaker.

The man that they thought was dead for so long.


	8. Chapter 8

**Here is chapter 9! This one is extra long...**

**You will know soon as to why Hibari chose Haru to come with instead of Yamamoto or Gokudera.**

**Please R&R!**

**~ R&R ~ R&R ~ R&R ~ R&R ~ R&R ~**

* * *

><p>"Hahi! Everything down there looks the same!" Haru cried.<p>

Down below her and Hibari was forest, lots of it. Somewhere around there, Tsuna left them, but she couldn't remember the exact location. Haru was almost expecting Tsuna-san to appear from below and fly towards them, but that would be hoping for too much. She couldn't think about the worst; that would haunt her. The brown haired girl flew beside Hibari; she stared at him, waiting for him to say something. She was too anxious with all the thoughts running in her head.

"Hibari-san, do you remember where Tsuna-san exactly left us?" Haru was the first to speak.

Hibari pressed his brows against the strong wind current. This was too confusing…all too confusing. Hibari was growing frustrated as each minute passed; if he hadn't left them, none of this would have happened. Thank goodness Hibari was good about keeping in his anger. He rarely ever fully lashed out on anyone, unlike Gokudera who did all the time.

"I doubt he got hurt all by himself. Those people he tried to stop must have done something."

Haru continued to stare at Hibari. That did make sense, but…

"But Tsuna-san could easily beat them! We're stronger than regular humans!"

Hibari looked back at her; his raven hair whipping at all sides of his face. He looked back down and noticed an opening throughout the forest. He squinted his eyes to get a better look. That looked exactly like the same place those boys were at.

"There it is." He motioned towards the opening.

"Ah! You found it!" Haru beamed, "Tsuna-san needs our help! We need to save him before we go to Chrome!"

Hibari banked, curving his wings and body to the left. Haru followed him as they circled before landing on the soil. Hibari looked around, seeing the completely empty opening. There was no one in sight. Trees surrounded them forming a forest around them. Haru looked through the trees to see if there was any sign of…anything. All she saw was an empty forest. She walked back to Hibari who saw nothing else as well. He looked absolutely frustrated, like he was ready to snap any minute. That scared Haru.

Where could he be? Maybe he was busy…

All these thoughts kept plaguing Haru. No matter how much she tried to brush them off so she could keep level-headed, her emotions kept getting the better of her. He couldn't have gotten attacked…and then…killed. It was just too much to bear. She couldn't deal without having Tsuna-san by her side, she would never get used to that fact, ever. He was like an older brother to her and Chrome. She looked up to him, she was really close to him…second to Chrome, of course. The two she was closest to were gone at the moment. She couldn't deal with that fact.

She looked over at Hibari again. With Hibari, she barely spoke to him. They weren't exactly close in terms of friendship or anything. They both had very different personalities. In contrast to her, Hibari was not a warm or huggy person, at all. He was very strong, the strongest out of all of them. That was both an advantage and a disadvantage. A disadvantage because Hibari could easily leave the family and go live by himself if he felt they were being a burden on him. He liked being alone and it probably wouldn't bother him at all. She never knew what Hibari was thinking though, he was hard to read, so maybe that wasn't a motive of his.

Haru pressed her lips shut; she felt a pang in her throat. She never felt so many different feelings at once, it overwhelmed her.

In a matter of seconds she felt tears stream down her cheeks. No! She couldn't cry…especially not in front of Hibari. She just couldn't bear it without Tsuna-san. She quickly wiped her tears. She had to be strong. She couldn't cry that easily; she drew deep breaths and held them trying to hold back any sobs that would come out. Haru looked up and tried focusing her mind on something else. That would help.

She saw a signs that were quite a distance from the forest, but high enough for her to see. There must have been a highway not too far from where they were. Her eyes widened when one of the signs caught her eyes.

**It said Naples, Italy 5 miles.**

"_Ano, right before we left. I looked through more of Iemitsu's old files…and some of them were actually about us…well I only found some of me. You see, I saw my full name, Haru Miura, on the page and then the location Naples, Italy…and then I read something about parents moving from Japan to Italy for refuge from something…or whatever. I was thinking, none of us ever knew our real parents…if we actually had real parents…well I've always wondered whether they gave us up to Vendicare or either that we're just test tube ba-"_

Naples! That was where Haru's parents were from! She couldn't believe it. She immediately wiped the last of tears off her face and beamed with surprise. She could actually find her parents! All this time she lived without a real mother and father...

Would they want her back? Were they still living there? All those questions plagued her mind.

"Hibari-san! Hibari-san! Look!" Haru pointed to the same highway sign, "It's Naples! I have to go there!"

"What?" Hibari frowned; completely perplexed at her sudden inclination to go to some place.

"My parents!" The brown haired girl exclaimed, her brown eyes wider than ever.

"No. Our focus is on Tsunayoshi. You're getting sidetracked."

"What?" Haru's voice was on the brim of breaking down. She was feeling incredibly desperate, "I have to go find my parents…if Tsuna is gone. I'm going to need someone."

"Have you lost your mind?" There was clear anger in Hibari's voice. No matter how much it scared Haru, she wouldn't back down. She had to do this. Maybe her parents weren't here, but if she never tried, she would never know.

"If you had the chance to see your parents wouldn't you do so?!" Haru exclaimed, anger was evident in her voice too.

Hibari didn't answer, he had no idea what to say at the moment.

"Of course! You wouldn't because you're too much of a loner to care about anybody!"

The raven haired male was taken aback for a moment, but regained his composure. Whatever she said didn't hit hard because it was kind of true…to a degree.

"How do you know we weren't just test tube babies?"

"I…" Haru stopped, but then she shook her head, "No! I-I'm going and you can't stop me!"

In a matter of seconds, she extended her wings and flew off.

**~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~**

"I think we're safe now."

Gokudera and Yamamoto flew far enough from the cabin and their house. Far enough that the soldiers and muscle scrum wouldn't find them. Yamamoto looked upset; he hadn't said a word since him and Gokudera left the place.

"What's with you baseball idiot?" Gokudera asked.

Yamamoto let out a small chuckle, surprised that Gokudera would notice his change of mood at all, "My baseball bat, I lost it when we fought with the muscle scrum. I threw it at one of them."

Gokudera scoffed and then rolled his green eyes, "I thought you were worried about something more important."

"It is important."

The silver hair teen looked at Yamamoto, completely unsurprised as to why he would think a measly baseball bat would be of importance.

"Why?"

"Iemitsu gave it to me."

Gokudera's eyes softened before looking ahead at the sky. It was silent between the two for quite some time. There was no going back; they certainly couldn't go back to their house, they would be mobbed there.

"So what are we going to do now?" Yamamoto spoke up.

"We're definitely not going back, the muscle scrum and soldiers will follow us to our house and destroy that. So we're going to lake Fucine."

"Lake Fucine? How do you know-"

"I overheard Juudaime saying that they were going to meet there in case of any emergency, before they left us."

**~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~**

This had to be the most normal breakfast I've ever had in my entire life. This was how normal people with normal families ate; it was the best thing ever to experience. I was sitting across Fuuta and her mom, Nana, in the dining room table eating an assortment of pancakes, sausages, eggs, you name it. Compared to our regular meals which would be poorly cooked ones like ones eaten off of cans or my bad cooking, this was amazing. After our breakfast, Fuuta was dropped off at school. I've never been to real school ever, Iemitsu just home schooled us along with his training. There were days where I wondered what regular public school was like.

For now, it was just me and Nana. Fuuta's mom placed the empty dishes into the sink…those were mostly emptied by me. I was really hungry.

"So, Tsuna-kun…"

I kept my eyes on Nana, anticipating what she was going to say next, but at the same time nervous.

"Do you want to talk about… anything?"

I felt a bead of sweat; my face flushed. Even though Nana and Fuuta managed to make me feel comfortable, I was still hesitant about doing such a thing. My family and I were very secretive to outsiders, for a really good reason.

"Eto…" I began, "I don't think so…"

God I was so nervous. I calmed down once I saw Nana nod her head. She gave me a reassuring smile; her brown eyes warm and understanding. It's like she understood me, how uncomfortable I was whenever I'd get asked personal questions. My lips curved upwards into a small smile. I watched Nana quietly wash the dishes; the only noise was the clattering of plates and silverware. It all felt so tranquil. I've never felt such peace…for a while now, and her home provided that. I was so thankful.

I shook my head and immediately snapped out of it.

…I had to leave soon. I kept saying that, but I couldn't bring myself to leave. It was such an unfamiliar place, but I felt relaxed.

Nana placed the cleaned plates onto the dish rack to dry, "Do you have a last name Tsuna-kun?"

No…I didn't. Half of us in our family didn't. Some of us never got to know our real families, some were lucky, like Haru.

I shook my head.

"Are there others like you?"

My heart panged as soon as I heard that question. I swallowed before facing down on the floor. Nana noticed my hesitation, "Do you need help? Your wings…can you fly with them?"

I immediately looked up at her, "…Yes."

I nearly slapped myself. How did she managed to get that information out of me?

"Really?" Fuuta's mom beamed. Instead of looking shocked or puzzled, her brown eyes widened. She looked excited.

"Hai. My bones are thin. They allow me to fly easily. My lungs and heart are bigger." I began, "I have to eat a lot because I have a very high metabolism." Was me keeping this a secret from the world causing me to spill it all out in one go all of a sudden?

"…how did this happen?"

All of a sudden I had flashbacks about Vindice. All of those horrible, inhumane, disgusting things that they did to us over there…it all played over in my head. I shut my eyes.

"I…don't remember." I lied.

**~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~**

"Are you sure I can't help you in some way?" Nana asked.

I shook my head. I didn't want to burden her anymore; I didn't even want to bring any of this stuff up in the first place, "I have to leave…my friends are waiting for me and have been for a while. It's really important."

"Will you be able to get to them fine Can I give you a ride?"

"Ahh…" I began, trying to think up of something. Instead I shook my head, "No…that's fine I need to f-fly there but I don't think I can yet."

I rubbed my shoulder which still felt sore.

"Hmm…" Nana hesitated, "It is dangerous for you to put strain on your injury while it's still healing. It may become worse if you do so. Maybe I can tell you how far it's healed so far with an X-ray."

"Ehh?" My eyebrows shot up. Scary images of Vendicare popped up into my head. I was familiar with that term; I haven't gotten an X-ray in years though; the last time I got one was when I was really little and I don't remember it as of now. I've seen plenty of them being done to others; they were pretty fascinating but scary at the same time. Last night I learned that Nana worked part time as a nurse, no wonder she was so experienced with healing my cuts.

"Y-you can do that?"

Nana laughed a bit, getting a slight kick from my overly surprised reaction.

"Yes I can. I have access to an X-ray machine." Today was her day off as well as most of the employees so I felt more comfortable being one of the only few in the hospital at the time. I was still anxious about seeing other people up close, but I tried to not let Nana notice.

"Good morning." Nana greeted the workers at the front office, "This is Fuuta's friend from school. He has a biology project so I decided I would let him use some of the resources here to help."

The two workers from behind the counter smile and nodded and greeted us good morning back, completely believing her. Thank goodness, now I won't get funny stares. My entire body froze when we came into a room. It reeked of chemicals. There was a large circular machine with computers hooked onto it. I clenched my fists. No matter how long ago we were in Vindice, I still get goosebumps from any place that slightly resembles it. I took deep breaths and unclenched my fists before entering the room.

"Is everything okay Tsuna-kun?"

"Yes." I nodded.

After locking the door so that nobody would come inside, Nana positioned me onto a table. She laid me down. I looked around me and noticed the circular machine. She slowly pushed it towards me as it went over my body. I flinched from the close proximity of it, but immediately calmed down. I guess I became sort of claustrophobic from being inside of a cage in Vindice for so long.

She stepped out of the room, I heard a tiny buzz, and it was all over. I sighed in relief as the machine got pushed away from me. I sat back up. A few minutes later, Nana shown me several dark sheets of see through pictures of my shoulder bones, arm, and the part of my wing which got injured. She placed it into a light box so I could see it more clearly.

"Your bones weren't broken. It was all muscle damage; there's torn tissue here and there." She said as she maneuvered her hand against the shoulder x-ray picture.

I nodded.

"Here are your wing bones." She placed that x-ray onto the light, "Those are fine. However, there's still muscle damage. Those takes longer than bones to heal, but your rate of regeneration is really fast."

I was relieved…kind of.

She looked at the last x-ray which was of my arm, "Your bones look fine here too- ara what is this?"

My eyes widened as I saw her change of expression. Nana looked quite puzzled. I looked over her shoulder to see what she was so surprised about. She pointed at a bright white square which looked to be about half an inch wide. It was right in the middle of my forearm. _What was that thing?_

Nana held the picture closer to her eyes as she adjusted the light on it, "That…that looks like…"

"What is it?" I eagerly said as I kept my eyes glued onto the x-ray.

"It's a microchip…"

"Ehh?!"

"They put something similar to that in animals, to track them in case they're lost. They have a tracer in them in case they're stolen…wherever they are, they can be tracked down."

**~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~**

My face completely froze.

"I'm not sure if that's what it is," she said quickly. "but it looks very similar to one."

"Take it out," I clearly said, "Please take it out."

This frightened me to the brim. I couldn't believe it. Wherever I went…I could be tracked? This couldn't be possible. I stared at Nana who examined the x-ray once again, I was waiting for her to say something. As each second passed, my heart rate got quicker and quicker.

"I don't think it can be surgically removed. It must have been implanted a long time ago, when your arm was much smaller. Now all your muscles, nerves, an blood vessels have completely grown around it. If we tried taking it out, you could lose the function of your hand."

I placed my hands on either side of my spikey brown hair. My eyes were wide open; I was on the brim of panicking and lashing out. This can't be happening…all these years have gone by without me knowing that there could be a tracker in my arm. Vindice could actually know where I am! Did they implant these in everyone else?

Nana placed a comforting hand on my shoulder. I tensed at the sudden touch, but relaxed after a moment. I didn't want to say anything that I shouldn't say; Fuuta's mom couldn't do anything about it so that was it.

Right then, we heard voices coming in from the hallway. They became louder. I snapped my head up, freezing once again. Nana looked at me and listened to the voices, "I'm sure this is nothing Tsuna-kun. You can step in here for a moment."

I nodded my head and placed myself into the cabinet that Nana motioned towards. I hid behind several lab coats.

"I'll be right back."

I nodded as nana turned off the lights; I tried my best to stay out of sight. Fuuta's mom left the room and closed the door before entering the hallway where the voices came from. Several men stood in the hallway outside the X-ray room.

"What's going on here?" I heard Nana from outside.

"Excuse us Ma'am. Please forgive us." One of the men said, "We're local law enforcement, we're looking for anything unusual. That's all we can say."

I tensed the minute I remembered the xray with the tracker in my arm. No…no…no…could they have….? Maybe I'm being paranoid. I grimaced. I was so intent on making a run for it, but I had to keep calm, I couldn't lose it. Not now.

Nana's eyes widened, but she kept her calm composure.

"Unusual like what?" She urged.

"Unusual people, for example. Strangers in the neighborhood…children or teenagers that you don't know or who look suspicious."

"Huh." Nana placed her index finger on her chin, "I don't think I have. It's usually so peaceful around the suburbs where I live…"

The men nodded as she rambled on about the type of place she resided in. She was doing this on purpose. Nana knew what she was doing. I sighed in relief.

"Well, if you gentlemen will excuse me, I have a business to run!" Nana smiled, putting on her sweetest demeanor as she could, "The way out is through that door."

"If you do see or hear of anything unusual, here's a number for you to call. Thanks for your time. Sorry to disturb you." One of them handed her a business card.

Heavy footsteps faded from my hearing before I heard a door shut.

"If you see those two guys again, call the cops," I heard Nana say to one of the front desk people.

She came back into the x-ray room and opened the cabinet for me so I could come back out.

"Those guys were bad news…right?" Nana asked. With her knowing about my wings and all, she knew what could possibly be going on.

"I better leave now…" I quietly said.

"Tomorrow morning." Nana replied, "For your cuts to take more time to heal."

I was about to say something, but instead I nodded my head, "Okay."

It was so strange how I could trust her…and for so long too…

**~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~**

"I told you before, if you're not going to stop to answer me, I'll leave and find the herbivore on my own."

Haru didn't reply. In fact, she was surprised that Hibari was still with her, but she wasn't going to back down. Hibari retreated into angry silence; he was going to have a long talk with her after this. They were stalling Chrome and Tsuna even more, it pissed him off by the minute.

Haru saw apartments below; she made sure there was no one in sight before landing. She looked around; she remembered an address from the files she read. This was the exact neighborhood she was looking for. She looked up and saw small apartments that were jammed together…it really wasn't anything she expected. Drying clothes filled the ledges of the apartment balconies while cars surrounded the area. Cobbled stone made the ground of the congested neighborhood; litter was left on the ground leaving a stench.

"Tch…a back alley neighborhood." Hibari quietly said. Haru shot him a dirty look before looking at the street names and the addresses of each house as they hid behind a parked car.

Haru snaked her way through more cars and occasional street wires from above. Hibari reluctantly followed her. As much as he wanted to, he couldn't leave Haru. Tsunayoshi…or Chrome, if they rescued her…wouldn't take this too well.

The brown haired girl let out an audible gasp once she spotted a familiar address on one of the apartment doors.

5601.

That was the exact number.

Her parents could be inside there.

Haru crouched behind another car as Hibari did the same beside her. She examined the specific address, it looked just like the other apartments. Disorderly, old, and poorly built. She didn't know what to do for a while…would she go and knock-

"What if they moved?" Hibari interrupted her thoughts, "I'm being realistic here. Even if you weren't born from a test-tube, there might have been a reason why they gave you up to Vendicare. They might not want you back."

Haru trembled at the last sentence he said. No…no…she couldn't let that get to her.

"I've thought about that!" Haru exclaimed, trying to keep her voice down, "But I want to know who my parents are…I would never know if I never had the chance to try to look for them. If you knew your parents could possibly be near you, wouldn't you do the same?"

Hibari paused, surprised that Haru talked to him after all this time. However, he didn't know what to say to her question. His mind was blank, not an answer in sight.

"…I don't know."

That was one of the very few times Hibari sounded so unsure.

"_That's because you don't need anything or anybody_," Haru coldly said, "But I'm not like that. I need people."

It was unlike her; she never stood her ground against Hibari like that. She knew what he was capable of whenever someone dared to piss him off.

Instead, Hibari frowned, but kept quiet.

The two were completely out of sight behind another car.

"Hahi!" Haru heard the door open. She immediately tensed and was visibly shaking. Hibari kept his eyes on her before facing the door; his eyes narrowed when he saw a woman come out of the apartment door. The woman stepped out onto the porch and took a cigarette out of her chest pocket. Haru examined the woman. She had short unmanaged curly brown hair; her eyes were brown, but not as circular as hers. Haru immediately looked at her reflection from the car's metal edge. She tried comparing herself to how that woman looked, just to see any similarities. Haru checked her skin tone; she was on the pale side, but not as pale as Hibari. She looked at the woman's skin tone, she was slightly darker than Haru.

The woman lit the cigarette and puffed before blowing an air of smoke.

"Hibari-san…"

Haru stiffened as she continued to watch the woman's every move.

"You think that's her?" Hibari quietly said.

Haru bit her lip; she didn't know. It was so strange…part of her hoped that wasn't her mom. She seemed so different to what she pictured her to be…the neighborhood…the cigarette…all of those. Haru so badly wanted to stand up, get from behind the car, walk up to that woman and say-

"Kufufufu…"

Hibari and Haru immediately spun back and stood on their feet. They saw Mukuro along with two other men behind him. One of them sported unruly spiky blonde hair while the other had straight blue hair with glasses. The one with glasses had a code marked under his left eye.

Hibari's eyes narrowed; he was ready to bite him to death…senseless. After what happened last time, he was not going to put up a fight. He immediately took out his tonfas and gripped them hard, side by side.

"Kyouya Hibari. You didn't let me introduce them yet." Mukuro smirked, motioning towards the two guys that were behind him, "These-"

Hibari immediately swiped his tonfa towards Mukuro, but the pineapple haired male easily blocked it with his upper arm.

"You didn't let me finish."

"I don't give a shit." Hibari replied, keeping his stance.

Mukuro instantly chuckled at this, "I have some news for you guys. Your hideout in the mountains is nothing but ashes. It's completely destroyed. You two are the only ones left."

Haru's eyes widened; she immediately lowered herself, her hands over her mouth. She couldn't believe it…they killed the others? Their home was destroyed? She tried her hardest not to, but tears were streaming down her cheeks. Hibari loosened his hold on Mukuro, no matter how convincing his voice sounded, he couldn't believe it. It sounded too outrageous for him to believe. Haru wiped her tears and looked up at Hibari; Hibari looked back down at her. The prefect immediately motioned his head upwards.

Haru understood this. She gave him a short nod back. She had to focus…she couldn't let this distressing news ruin her…not now…

She watched Hibari placed one of his hands behind him while holding onto the tonfa. He stuck one finger out…then two…then three…

Haru instantly zoomed upwards, quickly letting her wings snap outwards. She slightly winced from the sudden exertion she placed on them. Haru stole a quick glance at the apartment, the woman went back inside. She had no time to think about that though. She had to think fast.

"She's escaping bion!" The blonde haired male shouted.

"Ken, Chikusa. You know what to do." Mukuro said with a dark tone ro his voice. Ken, the blonde haired one, quickly brought a sharper pair of fangs from his pocket and placed them onto his teeth. Haru's jaw opened wide when she saw the blonde haired one quickly morph into a more animalistic version for himself. He resembled some sort of a tiger.

...These were the experiments that Vindice was capable of doing.

Mukuro brought out a trident from behind him; he leaped forwards and swung it against Hibari who blocked it with one of his tonfas. Hibari used his other tonfa and swung it upwards, hitting Mukuro straight on the chin. The blue haired male fell backwards from the impact. Chikusa, the one with glasses, crossed his arms together and swung them out, emitting strings that were attached to circles. Yoyos. These people had the most peculiar weapons. Haru yelped when she felt one of the yoyo strings wrap around her leg; she could feel the string pull her downwards as she tried flying higher. Hibari lunged upwards and did a faceplant on Ken's face who was ready to lunge at Haru, causing the morphed human to fall down. Hibari smashed his tonfa against Ken's face, he heard a slight crack. He must have broke something.

"Ah!" Haru cried, another yoyo string grabbed her other leg. For a yoyo string, it was incredibly strong, Haru was surprised; it didn't snap as she tried wriggling free. She was hoping to death that anyone in the apartments wouldn't hear all the commotion. That would be really bad.

Behind Hibari Mukuro twirled his trident; his right eye had was red; with the kanji symbol of one. Haru felt herself falling downwards; she saw Hibari as well fall too. Haru looked below them and saw nothing but black. She managed to untangle herself from the yoyo string, but Ken, Chikusa and Mukuro himself were still above them.

"Hibari-san, what's going on?!" Haru shouted, "We're falling down!"

She looked above and saw the buildings getting farther and farther away from her. She looked below again and saw that they were falling into a black abyss. Her heart beat quicker and quicker; she had no idea what was happening. She tried flying upwards, but she couldn't move one bit. What was this?

"Snap out of it."

Haru was still panicking; she shut her eyes. She kept sinking lower and lower.

"It's an illusion, you herbivore."

Oh!

Haru opened her eyes and saw herself on the ground. Nobody was sinking; there was no black. She nearly slapped herself for being so stupid at a time like this. Just like Chrome, she knew Mukuro was enhanced with illusion-like powers. However, Mukuro was much stronger than Chrome. He had much more adequate training at Vindice than Tsuna-san and his family had with Iemitsu. An experiment was done on Mukuro's right eye, granting him six different powerful skills. When using each skill a corresponding Japanese kanji numeral from one to six appears on that eye; each numeral stands for a different illusionary realm. Haru grimaced at the thought of his real eye getting taken out of his socket and replacing it with this one.

"Oya, you're very perceptive." Mukuro smirked once again, "This girl here could take a lot of advice from you."

Mukuro twirled his trident, ready to attack. Hibari clutched his tonfas.

"Hibari-san watch ou-!"

Hibari immediately spun back and smashed Chikusa with his tonfa, noticing him creep up from behind before Haru could finish her sentence. Chikusa threw both of his yoyos towards Hibari, but he easily dodged this by crouching down. Mukuro hit the side of Hibari's head with his elbow from behind; Hibari staggered back, feeling blood come out of his mouth. The prefect furrowed his brows from the sudden impact of pain. Haru let out a pained gasp; she had to do something! Anything…

Mukuro kicked him hard on the chest, causing more blood to come out.

Haru's eyes widened when she found a container of chemical spray on the car trunk they were behind. She quickly took the container, stumbling a bit because of its heaviness. Before Chikusa could attack, Haru flew upwards luckily avoiding the yoyo string from bringing her down. Haru clutched her hand tight on the spray handle; she flew right above Mukuro and-

_PPPFFFFFFFFFFTTTT_

The spray emitted a shower of whatever chemical was inside. Mukuro cursed loudly and doubled over, feeling his face sting like bees from the dangerous liquid.

"What the fuck did you do to me?!"

Haru immediately flew backwards, getting as far away from Mukuro as possible. She was really taken aback from the malice in his voice; Mukuro never lost it like that. He always kept his cool. Hibari took this moment to get up on his feet. Haru shrieked when she saw Chikusa's yoyo's once again zoom towards her. Hibari immediately grabbed Haru's foot from above and swung her around, causing her to collide straight into Chikusa. The bespectacled male fell backwards while Haru stood airborne.

"Hibari-san!"

He turned around and saw Mukuro reach into Ken's pocket, his eyes barely open from the amount of chemical stinging it. He took out a gun from the blonde haired male who was knocked out earlier. He aimed it at Hibari. Hibari immediately leaped up and took off faster than Haru could ever see him move. Haru shrieked when she heard the gun go off. Hibari pulled her close to him just when another bullet whizzed right past her. When they were high enough, they slowed down to catch their breath.

"Hahi! That was so frightening desu!" Haru cried.

She looked at Hibari who kept on a stern face. That was normal, but he looked more stern than usual. Haru knew why. She put Hibari through all of this because of her selfish desire…to find her parents who might not even be her parents. Her desperation put them in grave danger, nearly killing them in the process. Plus Chrome was waiting for them…Haru was putting her best friend in even more danger the longer it took for them.

"Ano…I'm sorry, Hibari-san." She spoke up, "This was all my fault."

Hibari wiped blood that gathered on the side of his lips, "Obviously."

Haru tensed.

"You're so naïve."

He was right. She was still very young and she often did reckless things without thinking twice.

"I know…" Haru sighed, "I'm so sorry-"

"You already apologized." Hibari interrupted, with slight irritation in his voice, "What's done is done."

She reluctantly nodded.

"What are we going to do?"

"We're going back to Lake Fucine. That's our safest bet."

"What if Tsuna-san doesn't come back?" Haru asked, her innocent brown eyes showing evident apprehension. Hibari knew she was thinking of what Mukuro said earlier…about their home being burnt down.

"He will."

Those two words from Hibari-san have never surprised Haru more.

**~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~**

Chrome stared at Iemitsu for what felt to be like hours. It really was him in the flesh. She couldn't say anything…she was too shocked for words. All this time they thought he died, but here he was alive and well. Chrome even had to convince herself that this wasn't an illusion. Was it? No. He was the real deal. Chrome knew. She had a myriad of flashbacks…Iemitsu teaching her how to use her powers for the first time…how to be tough in front of her enemies…him playing tag with her and the rest of the family when they were little…well, except for Hibari.

Tears filled her eyes. She wanted to jump out right from the cage to give him a hug.

_No!_

Chrome quickly blinked her tears away.

She couldn't let herself succumb to her feelings. There was something different about, something awfully different. He wore a lab coat, just like the other workers. He reeked of chemicals. Why was he even here? She thought he wanted out of Vindice along with them. Chrome's eyes trembled…it was all so confusing to her. There was so much going on at this moment. There were so many feelings she felt: happiness, anger, betrayal, and comfort. It was all too much for her 13 year old self to take in.

Iemitsu knelt on the floor in front of her. He held out a tray of food, lots of it. Chrome smelt it all; she clutched her stomach, her hunger was coming back to her. Right when she was about to reach for the tray, she shot her hand back.

She couldn't take it.

From what she assumed, Iemitsu was on their side now. She couldn't trust him at this moment.

"Aren't you hungry, Chrome? They haven't been feeding you well at all, have they?" Iemitsu had a concerned look on his face, "They don't know your appetite."

He laughed a little bit, it sent shivers down her spine for some reason. His laugh would usually be infectious and calming, but this time around…it didn't sound right. His laugh sounded…_off_. Why was he even speaking to her so casually? It's been such a long time since they've seen him.

He leaned forward some more and pushed the food tray closer to Chrome; she slightly backed away.

"It's not healthy for you to be eating so little…with your body types you burn so many calories a day." Iemitsu said, "I doubt you get over 1000…I'm concerned."

Chrome looked up at him, his eyes seemed so vacant.

"I'll make sure they treat you right."

She slightly gritted her teeth…this was a trap. There was something so off. Hibari-sama, Gokudera-sama, and Tsuna would see through this and they taught her to do the same. _Never trust anyone…_

Iemitsu extended his arm through the cage; he was about to place a comforting hand on Chrome's shoulder. Chrome immediately saw this and nearly jumped back.

"Don't touch me!" Her soft voice was barely audible, but he could hear it well enough.

"It's okay. I know you're confused right now, but just eat. You don't look well." He sounded genuinely concerned, he really did, but Chrome couldn't fall for it…

Chrome felt more tears; she couldn't cry. She curled herself in a fetal position and let out soft whimpers. Iemitsu noticed this.

He took out a napkin, put some of the food from the tray in it and handed it closer to Chrome. The purple haired girl slowly raised her head from her lap. She immediately looked away.

"I can't explain everything now, but it will all become clear soon. Then you'll understand. I promise."

"I hate you." Chrome heard herself say.

Iemitsu looked upset with her words, but didn't let that falter him, "_That's okay…that's perfectly okay_."


	9. Chapter 9

**Here is chapter 9! I was particularly excited for this one, so I decided to finish it in a quicker pace. I hope you enjoy!**

**~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~**

"Ahhh they smell so good!" I crouched down towards an oven, looking through its window. A dozen chocolate chip cookies were slowly rising in the oven; the scent covered the kitchen and maybe even the whole house. This was incredibly interesting to watch; never in my life have I seen chocolate chip cookies being made from scratch. Even though Haru was the best cook out of all of us, she didn't know how to cook like this. Nana was such a pro at cooking.

Fuuta's mom chuckled; she was amused at my enthusiasm at such simple things like cookies baking in the oven. After Fuuta came home from school, Nana brought us to the kitchen to make some cookies with her. I have got to show Haru how to make these, she would love a chocolate chip cookie recipe. I smiled, so would Chrome. She often did some cooking with Haru.

_We were definitely going to rescue her. No question._

My eyes immediately lit up when Nana took the cookies out of the oven. She wore oven mits as she took the hot baking sheet out. I had to restrain myself from grabbing one of the cookies because they were too hot to touch now. I clasped my hands together as I leaned over the cookies and sniffed them once again. _They smelled sooooo good._

"Itei!" I yelped.

"Are you okay Tsuna-nii?!" Fuuta gasped.

I nervously laughed, realizing that I touched the piping hot pan as I leaned too close, "Ahahaha. I touched the pan on accident."

Nana carefully slid the cookie sheet off of the pan; I immediately grabbed one cookie and took a bite. I nearly burnt my tongue because it was still very hot, but continued to chew. The cookie was so rich and buttery with just the right amount of sweetness; the chocolate chips slowly melted in my mouth. It was the best thing I've ever tasted. I savored each and every bite I took. Fuuta grinned at my obvious pleasure from the cookie while Nana chuckled.

"Is it good?"

"Very!" I exclaimed, quickly nodding my head "Do you have a recipe? These are the best cookies I've tasted!"

"Thank you." Nana replied, "I don't have a one…I'm sorry, but feel free to take another one."

I eagerly grabbed another cookie. An hour or so passed by; we were quite chatty, talking about anything we could just think of. It felt as if I knew them for years when I only met them yesterday. Fuuta was like a little brother to me while Nana felt like the mother I never had.

"So you're originally Japanese?" Nana asked, "You do look it. Your English is very good too."

I nodded my head, "Yeah. Tsunayoshi is my full name but everyone calls me Tsuna."

"Can you speak any Italian Tsuna-nii?" Fuuta asked as he leaned against the kitchen counter behind me.

"I only know a few words…" I replied. I never went to school here, at all, so I never got the chance to become fluent. Iemitsu would teach us Italian from time to time, but I only managed to remember a few phrases since it was so long ago.

"What about Japanese?"

"Only a bit. I only know some from habit." I shook my head. I also learned that Fuuta and Nana were Japanese as well. What a coincidence this was. Now I wished Iemitsu could have taught each of those languages a bit more to us. It would have been great to be fluent in all three.

When it was time to sleep, Fuuta and I went upstairs to my room.

"I have to take off tomorrow." I told him.

"Really?" Fuuta said, sadness evident in his large hazel eyes, "Aww…I love having you here. You're like an older brother!"

_You're like an older brother!_

I widened my eyes at what he just said, but then relaxed, "People are depending on me…it's really important."

Fuuta slouched his shoulders. It was silent between the both of us for a little while.

"Will you ever come back to visit?"

I looked at Fuuta straight in the face. I felt a slight pang in my chest, his voice sounded as if it were going to break. He looked really upset; I nervously hugged my waist. I didn't know what to say at the moment. I didn't want to make him feel any more upset, but I had to do this the rational way. I couldn't lie to him about this…or his mom. They were both so good to me. I felt very lucky to be in their care. They could have called the police on me and sent me to an institution for me to be dealt with, but they actually accepted me.

"I don't think so." I finally said, "I-I don't think I'll be able to. If I could, I would…"

I turned away and placed my folded clothes onto the side of the bed. I knew how much Fuuta was hurting, but this was for the best. He never had a sibling to grow up with and I sure felt like one to him.

**~ Fuuta ~ Fuuta ~ Fuuta ~ Fuuta ~ Fuuta ~**

Haru couldn't accept that the others were dead…she couldn't. If Tsuna ever came back and found out…

She tried her best not to spill any tears. The brown haired girl sat on a corner of the cave; she dug her index finger against the dirt, drawing indentations. That woman, who might have not been her mother, she just saw was completely out of her mind by now. Haru brought her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around her legs. For once in her life she didn't feel like talking, all she wanted to do was just collect her thoughts as she sat in the cave.

Ten minutes passed and Hibari went to look for more food as Haru waited. She really hoped he'd come back soon.

Haru jumped a bit when she felt something touch against her foot. She looked down and saw something wrapped in aluminum foil, a few inches away she saw familiar black shoes. She looked up and saw-

"Hibari-san! You're back!" She sounded a bit too happy.

"Why are you always so jumpy?"

"It's not my fault your steps are so quiet!" Haru argued, then picked up the foil, "What is this?"

"Arancini."

Haru raised her eyebrows, "What's that?"

"I just told you." Hibari rolled his eyes, as he sat down, a foot away or so from Haru.

She sighed in defeat, not wanting to piss off Hibari anymore. She quickly opened the aluminum foil and saw sphere shaped treats that looked to be deep fried. Haru gasped when she took in the rich smell of the food; she opened one of them and saw a mixture of rice and cheese inside of them.

"Sugoiii desu! This looks appetizing!" Haru took a bite and nodded her head in satisfaction. At least there was something to make her feel better for a little while. After finishing one of the rice balls, a question came into her head. She wanted to ask this for the longest time, but never really got the chance to. It felt like it lingered in her mind forever.

"Eto…Hibari-san…why did you pick me to come instead of Yamamoto or Gokudera?"

Hibari looked at her; Haru was tensed at his steely gaze. Maybe she shouldn't have asked that question. She was about to go back to eating her food because she didn't expect Hibari to answer.

"Because you're her best friend."

Haru's eyes widened, she barely stifled a gasp. She didn't expect Hibari to give her a reason like that…at all…and especially in a soft mannered tone of voice like that. The way he said it sounded very empathetic and compassionate towards her. Even though Hibari looked as if he didn't care, he knew how close Chrome and Haru were. They were the only females in the flock so they immediately formed a close friendship.

"Gokudera or Yamamoto would have gotten in the way, especially Gokudera. He may be a lot stronger than you, but he has a very reckless nature. He might stir up a lot of unwanted trouble." He continued.

That…sort of made sense. Haru simply nodded before taking another bite.

"_People become stronger when they have those they want to protect_."

Haru took Hibari's words into good consideration. She would remember that for the longest time.

"Do you think we should continue to look for Tsuna-san…or go try to save Chrome? I don't think they're dead, I have a feeling Mukuro was lying. I feel like if we wait for Tsuna to come, Chrome will…I don't want to think about it. We should save Chrome-chan first, then look for Tsuna-san again."

"We sh-" Hibari stopped in mid sentenced and squinted when he spotted something outside of the cave.

"Hahi? What's wrong?"

Hibari stood up and went closer to the outside to examine what he saw, making sure to stay out of sight just in case. There were two dots coming closer to him; he could see wings coming from them.

"Are those hawks?"

When Haru was about to go to the middle of the cave opening to try to get a closer look, Hibari pulled her back to the side so she wouldn't be seen. The "hawks" came closer and closer towards their direction. Haru slightly trembled, but then her mouth gaped open when she realized what she saw. Hibari took his hand off of one of his tonfas which he was getting ready to take out.

Those two "hawks" were Gokudera and Yamamoto.

"Yamamoto-kun! Gokudera-kun!" Haru exclaimed as they both landed in the cave, "You aren't dead!"

Hibari nearly face planted at what Haru just said aloud to them.

"We aren't? We aren't." Yamamoto chuckled as he rubbed the back of his head.

"What happened?" Haru asked, "Are you hurt?"

"No, a bunch of Muscle Scrum and Vindice soldiers found us so we had to escape." Gokudera replied, then smirked, remembering that Hibari forced him and Yamamoto to stay home, "Do you have a problem with that, Hibari?"

**~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~**

The next morning I fit myself into a new sweatshirt, courtesy of Fuuta. This one fitted me fine too. It was a vanilla color with orange sleeves. The back was cut with slits so that my wings could spread out. It was still sore, but I could still fly with them from the look of it.

I was so relieved; I haven't flown in what felt like years and I was just about ready to. I grimaced once I thought about what Hibari was going to do once I came back. Man he was going to be sooo pissed…

Nana gave me a small backpack.

"You can have this; you might need it." She smiled.

"Thank you." I smiled back. I looked at Fuuta who was still upset, but not as much as he was yesterday.

"If you ever need anything…please call us." Nana said, "Our phone numbers our inside the bag I gave you."

I nodded, though I probably wouldn't use the numbers. Part of me wished I could visit them, but I knew I probably couldn't. I guess that's the perks of being born like this…

"A-ano…" I began, feeling my heart thump rapidly. What do I say?!

"…Thank you so much for helping me. I was a stranger, but you went out of your way to make sure I was okay…"

"You helped me." Fuuta spoke up, "I was a stranger to you too, and you got hurt because of me."

I modestly shrugged, a blush creeping up my cheeks. I have to stop doing that so much. I wasn't really good with this type of stuff, I guess it's because I've never had people outside of my family help me in such a long time. I gave Fuuta a small grin.

"Anyways…Thanks for everything. I really appreciate it."

"It's our pleasure." Nana smiled, "We enjoyed having you here."

Fuuta nodded.

They both gave me a hug, all at once. My smile became bigger as I was squished in between them. They really knew how to make an outsider like me feel welcome. I eagerly hugged them back. Now I felt really guilty for having to leave them…they wanted me to stay a little while longer. While I wish I could have, it couldn't be done. After what felt like a while, we untangled each other from our long group hug.

I secured my backpack, making sure it wouldn't fall off. I slowly opened their front door, squinted at the sudden entrance of the sun's sharp rays. Fuuta and Nana followed me outside.

"Um…well…this is it…" I nervously chuckled, rubbing the back of my head.

Nana gave me one last hug before letting go.

"Good luck, Tsuna-kun."

I nodded my head.

It time for me to let them out, let normal everyday people see me fly for the first time. I saw them both watch me with curious eyes, eagerly anticipating what I would do next. I turned my back to them.

_Thank you, Nana, Fuuta._

I ran several quick steps before jumping up and unfurling my tan colored wings. I slightly winced at the pain; it was still sore, but okay enough for me to fly long distances. Against the sun's rays, my wings had an orange tint to them I turned back and saw Nana and Fuuta watching in awe. Fuuta let out a loud 'wow' while I could see Nana wiping her eyes as she smiled.

As I went higher, I could see them both waving at me. I gave them a long wave back before going forward. I smiled as I inhaled the fresh air; the wind felt so good. I really, really must have missed flying during those past two days. I was ready to go to Lake Fucine to meet up with Haru and Hibari-san…that is if they were still there. I really hope they didn't leave.

Chrome, I'm on my way at last.

**~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~**

I clutched my shoulder; it was going to take a while before I could get to Lake Fucine. I couldn't get sidetracked, I had to keep going forward. The soreness was irritating to deal with but I could walk it off.

About 30 minutes later, I approached Lake Fucine. I looked below me; I was high enough to see the full body of water with mountains surrounding it. I was two days late; I had second thoughts on whether they would wait for me or not. I flew down closer and closer to the mountains, seeing if they were inside the caves that were inside of them. I had no luck; I saw no sign of them.

I circled around and looked through some of the other mountains, carefully examining each of them, just in case I would miss anything. I let out a frustrated sigh…I couldn't see any sight of them. Did they leave to rescue Chrome without me? I tousled my unruly locks of brown hair.

I'm so stupid! Of course they would leave, especially Hibari-san! I can't believe I made them wait so long!

"Hieee! What am I going to do-"

"TSUNA-SANNNN!"

I turned around.

My heart beat was so loud that it felt like it was about to lurch out of my stomach.

**~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~**

My eyes beamed when I saw Haru peering out of a cave which was just a few feet away from me; she frantically waved to catch my attention. I saw Gokudera who ran to the front of the cave as well.

"Gokudera-kun! Haru!"

"Juudaime! You came back!" Gokudera shouted, "What happened? Where were you-"

"Tsuna!"

Yamamoto.

"Hey, baseball idiot! Don't interrupt me!"

"Sorry!"

…I can't believe it. They all waited for me.

Once I landed, Haru gave me tight hug while Yamamoto affectionately gave me a pat on the head. Gokudera bombarded me with questions and comments on how worried he was about me. I was surrounded amongst them trying not to squeal in delight because I was just so damn happy. I was so glad to be finally reunited with them all. We were together and safe at last. I raised my eyebrows when I saw Hibari leaning against a secluded corner of the cave. From the look of it, he had a straight expression but didn't seem too angry. He wasn't much of an affectionate person though. I hope he wasn't too mad at me…

"I can't believe it desu! We nearly thought you were dead! We even tried looking for you, but we had no luck. I was so worried…you scared us!" Haru cried, as she released her hug.

"I'm sorry…" I replied, "There's so much I want to tell you and why I took so long."

Then I looked over at Gokudera and Yamamoto, "How are you guys here? What happened?"

"We couldn't stay, the Vindice soldiers found us. If we stayed they could have done even more damage so we had to escape." Gokudera replied.

"They found our house?" I gasped.

"I think they did; we're not sure." He replied again, but his face lit up, "But we did manage to kill of a few with several bombs!"

"EHH?!" I nearly shrieked. I imagined all the possible damage Gokudera could have done with his unlimited supply of dynamite. He could do a lot with just one; he nearly blew the ceiling off of a closest in our house once when he tried experimenting with his bombs.

"Yeah. Gokudera and I devised a plan called System C.A.I. It was mostly his idea."

I frantically placed my hands on either side of my head and shook it, delving into a panicked mode.

"They already knew where we were, so we had to do something!" Gokudera replied, "Don't worry Juudaime! We got them sidetracked so they don't know where we are right now!"

I calmed down. I never really considered the fact that they may have come back to our house, so really, I was glad that they could think up of some idea to try to fend them off. What really mattered was that they were alright, "I'm glad you're all safe though."

"Same here." Yamamoto replied. I stole another glance at Hibari; he walked towards me, held onto one of his tonfas-

"Hiee!" I yelped. He really was going to bite me to death. I placed my arms in front of me to shield myself; I closed my eyes shut, ready to take whatever punishment was coming me. It was then I felt a slight tap on my head. I slowly opened my eyes; I looked up and saw that Hibari placed the bottom tip of his tonfa on top of my head.

"Hi-Hibari…?"

"Don't ever make us wait that long again."

"Hai!" I nervously replied as I took my arms away from my face. I let out a relieved sigh; Hibari let that one go. I was surprised but relieved at the same time. Gokudera 'tched' at Hibari; he always got mad at anyone who tried to hurt me the slightest.

"So we're going to save Chrome now?" I heard Yamamoto ask.

"Yes, we can't wait any longer." I replied. Our number one priority, for real this time, was to rescue Chrome. Our stories of whatever happened to each of us could wait later.

"Alright then we're off to save Chrome-chan!" Haru bumped her fist in the air.

Then, one by one, we fell off the cave opening, opened our wings, and headed for Vindice.

**~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~**

"Yes, they were very nice." I said aloud as we were up in the air, flying towards our destination. I told them about those two guys who tried to attack Fuuta and how him and his mom brought me inside to help heal my wound for the past two days.

"You got shot?" Gokudera sounded quite infuriated, "Tch I could have beaten those idiots to a pulp."

"Well…technically no, the bullet only scraped by me…" I replied, then quickly changed the subject; I didn't want Gokudera to worry too much. I turned over to Haru, "So what happened to you guys? You and Hibari-san?"

"Eto…well…I tried…" Haru's voice sort of faltered, she seemed really uncomfortable as if she didn't want to talk about it. I watched as she hesitated and bowed her head down hiding behind her fringe of brunette hair. Her brown speckled wings continued to flap as she flew alongside us.

"She tried to find her mom." Hibari finished her sentence; Haru bit her bottom lip and looked at me, her eyes had a pleading look. Like she didn't want me to be angry or anything. I was taken aback, but I definitely wasn't angry. We all at some point or another were curious about where we really came from, so I couldn't blame her.

"Hai…I saw that Naples was very close to where we were while we tried finding you. I found the exact address I remembered." Haru began fidgeting with her fingers, she looked so nervous; it was very unlike her, "A woman came out of the door…she had my hair color, a bit darker skin tone, brown eyes, but smaller than mines…"

I looked at her, anticipating to know what happened next. Haru noticed and continued, "But then Mukuro showed up and we had to escape. He did some scary illusion on us, but we managed to make it back safe."

"So you didn't talk to her?"

Haru shook her head, "…I don't even know if that was my mother."

I felt bad for her. You think she would have been excited to have found someone who could possibly be her parent, but she seemed really upset and maybe even confused. Maybe it's a lot complicated than I thought it seemed. I wonder what it would be like if ever met my parents…that is if I actually had them. Did Haru have second thoughts about having parents?

"Hey, Tsuna. About your run in with Fuuta and his mom….did they figure out about your wings?" Yamamoto spoke up.

I gritted my teeth; I could feel sweat gather in my palms. Now that I think about it I never mentioned that! I looked at Hibari who gave me cold look. Gokudera and Haru had surprised looks on their faces. Like I said, nobody outside our family has ever figured out about our wings. Ever. Well, besides Vindice.

"A-ano…they did." I replied, giving him a sheepish grin, "When Nana looked at my cut, she noticed them…"

"So now a normal human being knows you fly?" Hibari said; he was pissed off. I didn't blame him.

"They were really understanding about it! I doubt they would tell anyone. Even if they did, nobody would believe them! If you knew them you would understand. Fuuta's mom took me to the doctor's office so she could ensure that I was okay! She gave me a personal X-ray…!"

_Did I just say that out loud?_

I immediately clasped my hands over my mouth. I really am Dame-Tsuna!

"An X-ray?!" Haru exclaimed. Everyone's face froze on me.

"Ehh umm…no- no one else was in the room but her!" My nervousness creeped up once again. My face must have been as red as a tomato by now.

"What did it look like?" Gokudera asked, with curiosity.

"Well…" I began. Then I remembered the microchip they found in my arm. That white square that was imbedded in my forearm, "She found a microchip...imbedded in my arm"

"A what…?" Yamamoto chimed in.

"Microchip!"

"What do those do?" He asked, slightly amused at Gokudera's easily angered tone of voice.

"I think those are used for people to track you down." Gokudera replied, then seethed under his breath, "How dare those bastards put one in Juudaime?!"

"Maybe the rest of us have them…I don't know. It's strange because Vendicare hasn't found us in all those years we've been hiding out." I said, staring at the arm that had the microchip. It was back in my mind once again; it honestly scared me to death. In all my 15 years I never knew about this…it just freaked me out.

It became quiet between us after a while.

I really, really hoped I didn't screw us all for eternity by taking two days to heal. I hoped that Chrome was still hanging in there for us. She was strong…she could do it.

I hope.

**~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~**

Below us and the several spots of clouds that were blocking the ground was a highway. For the past two hours we went over several cliffs, lakes, forests, towns, whatever came about in Italy. I saw Haru fly closer to the right of me, she handed me what looked to be like a granola bar.

"Hibari-san brought some before you came."

"Thanks Haru." I replied. I was on the verge of being hungry. I peeled open the wrapped and tried to take a bite of it but couldn't, my hair kept flying to my mouth. I tried brushing my spikey locks away but they kept getting into my face.

"Need to get your hair done, Tsunayoshi?"

"Hi-Hibari-san!"

I looked at Hibari, he gave me a half smirk. I furiously blushed at what he just said. Argghhh! He always knew how to make me like this. We continued to eat our snacks in silence as the thought of the Fuuta and Nana lingered in my head. I was sure going to miss those two; I really felt like they were a second family to me. Once we finished our granola bars, I saw Hibari fly downwards towards an opening that was surrounded by a thick busy of trees; he motioned us to follow him. I raised my eyebrows, but did anyways.

"Hey! Where's he going?" Gokudera shouted, absently dropping his granola wrapper which was slowly falling down at least 50 feet below. He immediately followed me down.

"Don't litter!" Haru pestered, "Ahh…wait for me!"

We landed on the opening; I looked through the trees and saw that there was a rest stop not too far from us. What was Hibari going to do?

"We need food." He spoke up, "We haven't had anything real to eat in hours. We need to find a street map too."

"But Vendicare isn't just going to show up on any map! It's been that way for a reason!" Gokudera countered. He was right; Vindice was a top secret experiment facility. Nobody ever escaped that place unless they had allies who made the right kind of deal towards them, and that was nearly impossible to do. Even if someone escaped; they would never tell anyone like the police about Vendicare. Too many problems would arise from that, such as them being targeted and then killed.

"I know that." Hibari replied, irritation present in his voice, "We already have an idea of where it is; it would help us even more if had a map of what roads lead to that place."

I nodded; he really did make a good point. Before making sure our wings were folded in and out of site, Hibari led the way through the trees. I looked through the bushes and saw a rest stop with a gas station, a couple fast food restaurants, and a bank machine. This was good enough; we could refuel here and we would be set for Vindice.

My stomach grumbled once I smelled a strong aroma of salty French fries and beef patties.

"So how are we going to enter Vindice…?" Haru asked.

"We can't fly there; they'll definitely notice us." Hibari replied. He always knew how to think ahead. He often rivaled Gokudera when it came to being smart. Gokudera however, was book smart while Hibari was smart in the practical sense.

"So we have to walk?" Yamamoto asked, stretching his arms behind him, "Isn't that too far?"

"No, we're at least 15 miles from there."

If we were going to walk that long then we definitely had to refuel, "So we're getting lunch here?" I continued to inhale the scent from the restaurant.

"Yes." Hibari replied, faintly amused by my newfound appreciation of the food.

"Okay, let's get out of these trees-"

We immediately heard the squeal of car pulling in next to the gas station. We all crouched down behind the trees, trying our best to stay out of sight. I winced when I heard a man aggressively slam the front door of the red car as they climbed out of it. He wore sunglasses with a black suit, like he was going to some business meeting. He jerked the gas pipe out of the machine a slammed it into the car; on his other hand he carried a cell phone to his ear.

"Shut up!" He spoke in Italian, "Because of you forgetting to put the damn gas in the car I'm going to be late for my meeting! If they fire me because of you, I swear to god-!"

"…wow he's really mad." Yamamoto slightly laughed. We couldn't understand what the man was saying, but we could tell by how often he was slamming things down and literally yelling into his phone…he was really angry.

The man briskly walked over to the bank machine and stuck a card inside of there. He punched a 4 digit code. In a matter of seconds green bills came out through a slit. Everyone's eyes were glued onto this man…it wasn't often we saw regular people doing regular things. Gokudera particularly looked quite interested in that machine.

"Of course, you bitch! You know I'm in a bad mood! When I get home you better prepare something good for me!" He continued speaking…in Italian.

"What a jerk." Haru huffed, trying her best to keep her voice down.

In a moment another car aggressively screeched into the parking lot of the gas station, really, really close to the angry guy's red vehicle. Rocks and rubble emitted from the car as it parked. Any closer and it could have crashed.

"What are you blind?! Watch where you park!" The angry man screamed, this time in English. He must have been having a very bad day. Then again, I would have pissed too if that happened to me. The angry man unhooked the gas nozzle from his car and quickly drove off. I nearly flinched when I saw the window of the other car slide down; I saw a familiar pineapple haired male…it was Rokudo Mukuro. His eyes were blocked by sunglasses.

We all immediately shrank back further into the woods, trying our best to stay out of sight. He was looking for us…

"Why's he wearing sunglasses…?" Gokudera whispered.

"When we ran into him I sprayed something on his face; we were able to escape easily because of that. It might have made him sensitive to light or something." Haru replied.

"Nice!" Yamamoto whispered, "That's pretty clever."

I saw him get out of the car; my heart pounded. Two other guys came out from the passenger seat doors. One of them had messy blonde hair while the other had blue hair shaped in a bowl cut with glasses. They carefully looked around the gas station before looking through the windows of one of the fast food restaurants. Rokudo motioned for the blue haired one to look at the other restaurant while he searched the gas station once again.

…Hieee…when are they going to leave…?

"That's Ken and Chikusa….they were with Mukuro when we saw him." Haru quietly said, noticing that Ken had bandages wrapped around his forehead from when Hibari injured him.

"Shh! They might find us." Gokudera said.

Chikusa followed Mukuro into the other fast food restaurant while Ken noticed them and did the same. A bell rang a bit as the door opened. I let out a sigh of relief once they were out of our sight. I looked at Gokudera who stood up.

"I'm going to see if we can get money from that bank machine."

"How? You need one of those card thingies." Haru said.

"That dipstick left his card there." The silver haired pointed at the ATM; a card was still stuck inside the machine. That man must have been in such a hurry he forgot it.

"We need to do it quick before they come back out." Hibari spoke up, then said, "You need a code to get money from it."

Before we could hear Gokudera reply, we saw him walk towards it. Hibari glared at him from behind. The machine was behind the gas station and mostly out of sight from the fast food restaurants so we wouldn't have to worry too much about Mukuro and his subordinates finding us out.

"Go-Gokudera-kun! Wait for us!" I whispered. We all came out from the forest; we dipped low, trying our best to stay out of sight. We looked peered at the windows of the restaurants and saw several other people inside. As long as they didn't see five suspicious looking teenagers, we were fine. We all gathered behind the machine while Gokudera stood in front of it. He glanced at the card that was still imbedded in the machine before looking at the small ATM screen. It was obvious none of us never used one of these bank machines…or ATMS before, but we would probably need a ton of money for food and other necessities in the future.

We were only just borrowing money…no biggie.

Gokudera examined the screen.

Do you want another transaction? It read in white letters. Below those there was a 'Yes' or 'No' option.

"Hurry…hurry." I anxiously said as I kept looking back and forth from the fast food restaurant to the ATM.

Gokudera pressed 'Yes'.

He hit the 'Withdrawal' button that appeared in the next screen.

Next it said 'Please enter the amount you wish to withdraw'

"73 Euros?" I asked.

"105." Hibari interjected. I almost grinned at this.

"Do you think that's enough?"

"For food, I guess so." I replied to Gokudera.

'Type in your access code.' The machine said.

_Shit!_

"Ahh…crap. We don't know what that is…" I nervously said. I knew something like this would happen!

"Don't worry Juudaime, I remembered it." Gokudera grinned. We were lucky he was so smart to notice this beforehand, it helped he had such a great memory. He effortlessly typed in the four digit code. In a matter of seconds the machine started whirring and stacks of twenties shot out. I gasped in complete astonishment; this was so much money! When I was about to pick up the Euro's to examine the paper money even more, Hibari grabbed them.

"Hibari-san…!" I let out a childish whine.

"Don't get too excited." He replied.

The machine read 'Thank you for your business. Please take your card.'

"Don't mind if we do ~" Haru sang, as Hibari took it from the ATM and carefully placed it in his pocket. We were going to need that for the future.

"Let's go." I said.

With that said, we went back into the woods. I noticed Yamamoto turning to look back several times and trailing behind us. I looked back at Yamamoto, wondering what was up with him.

"Tsuna I just saw someone unload stuff out of their car and went to one of the restaurants. They left their car open…"

I raised my eyebrows; what was he going on about? Everyone else stopped in their tracks. Yamamoto pointed back to the rest stop we left; he motioned for me to come back. I reluctantly followed his steps.

"What's going on?' Gokudera said, "We have to get out of here before Mukuro comes back!"

"That car over there…" Yamamoto pointed at a white car at the parking lot; it was right in front of the restaurant. Its trunk and front doors were still open. It looked like someone must have went into the restaurant to order something quick before they came back into their car. I was completely perplexed as to why they would leave it open like that in a public parking lot. When I squinted well enough, I saw that the key was still left in key hole.

I saw Gokudera peer over us, "Wow. Who's stupid enough to do that?"

I shrugged. Today was the day where I've seen two dumb things happen in a row. First the ATM, now this. Could this be a stroke of luck?

Gokudera, Yamamoto, and I looked at each other. I could see the mischievous glint in Yamamoto's eyes. Were they thinking the same thing that I was thinking? Hibari-san and Haru were completely out of the loop, oblivious to what was going on.

"We're stealing that car." Gokudera spoke up.

"Ehhh? Don't say it like that Gokudera-kun!" I exclaimed. He was too blunt sometimes.

"What are you herbivores doing?"

"Hibari-san, you said that we couldn't fly to Vendicare…they would notice us if we did that. They probably have a bunch of super-secret cameras miles away from their actual headquarters. We were thinking that we could drive there instead."

It was a decent idea…we would have a less noticeable presence rather than us showing up with our wings. They would imprison us in no time if they saw us like that.

"None of us know how to drive." He said.

"We've seen people on T.V drive plenty of times before! It's not as hard as it looks." Yamamoto exclaimed, "All you have to do crank a lever, than crank another one, then you go 'ppprrrfttt'!"

There goes Yamamoto and his advice. I looked back at the opening and saw that the car was still unattended; I also noticed Mukuro's car was gone. We were so wrapped up in our conversation that we didn't even realize that he left.

"Mukuro left just a few minutes ago. We still have time."

Hibari hesitated for a moment. I looked up at him, anxiously anticipating his next move.

"Let's go."

I nodded; we all followed Hibari towards the car. We tried staying out of sight, for what felt to be like the millionth time. We tried our best to look normal and unsuspicious as we quickly made our way towards the unattended vehicle. Hibari sat into the driver's seat which was on the right after shutting the trunk of the car. I peered in the car and saw that there was another seat in the front and a big seat in the back…enough to fit three people.

"So who's sitting in the front?" Haru asked.

"Tsunayoshi will." Hibari grabbed my arm and pulled me into the car.

"Hiee!" I screeched before falling on my side; my head landed on Hibari's lap. I immediately jumped backwards, repeatedly bowing my head in complete embarrassment, "Sorry! Sorry!"

My cheeks were probably a crimson red by now; I saw Hibari quickly examine each of the car controls. Gokudera grumbled a few swearwords before getting in the back passenger seat; surprisingly, he didn't argue. He really couldn't though we didn't have time to since we were in a real hurry for two separate reasons…maybe more. Gokudera sat in the middle while Haru sat on his left and Yamamoto on his right. Once all the doors were closed, I turned around to look at how Gokudera and the others were doing. I stifled in a laugh; they looked really congested in the small space the car had to offer. Gokudera barely had enough space to move his arms around while Yamamoto and Haru had to hold onto the car hangers above them, to keep from getting crushed against the doors.

"You guys are squishing me!" Gokudera growled, pushing Haru and Yamamoto away from him.

"We can't move any further!" Haru argued, trying to remove Gokudera's hand from her, "It's not my fault this car is small!"

"Maa maa, calm down you guys!"

"Why-!"

"If you all don't shut up in three seconds…" Hibari's eyes darkened…if that was possible. He could be so scary sometimes…

Gokudera crossed his arms and scowled while Haru and Yamamoto quieted down. He was going to have to deal with this for 10 miles or so…it wouldn't be that bad. Kind of like a long road trip…with annoying siblings. Ok maybe that sounds like it would be really bad. Hibari picked up a sheet of paper from the windshield of the car; he examined it and saw different highway numbers and roads. It was a map. That could help us maneuver our way through the highways that were ahead of this rest stop.

"Hold onto this." He gave the map to me.

Hibari tried moving one of the levers, but it didn't budge.

"You're supposed to turn the key to the right." Gokudera said, leaning forwards. Hibari did so; the car engine sounded. _Yes! One step completed…ten more to go! _This was going to take a while.

Luckily Hibari knew what to do next. He dragged one of the levers forward until it reached a letter R. That must have been R for reverse, to turn the car backwards. He dragged another lever forwards. I didn't know what that one was…it must have been a brake or something. The car suddenly zoomed backwards.

"Hieee!" I yelped.

Hibari instantly slammed his foot onto a large petal that was below him. The car abruptly stopped, causing our heads to jerk backwards. I looked to the back of us; we nearly crashed into the gas station.

"Damn you nearly flew me out of the car!" Gokudera exclaimed, rubbing the back of his neck from the sudden exertion it was on.

"Put on your seatbelt or that might actually happen next time." Hibari impatiently said. I heard a few clicks, seatbelts were on.

Hibari then changed the same lever until it reached a letter D. D for Drive. He was heading for the highway that was not too far ahead of us.

"Okay guys…here goes nothing." I anxiously said as I held onto the map.

I hope Hibari wouldn't kill us…

**~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~**

This was probably the longest chapter I've written. Thank goodness for the free time I have during summer vacation though! :D I hope I can continue to update like this for the rest of the summer.

Please R&R I would love some feedback!


	10. Chapter 10

"…I think we're doing okay so far." I watched Hibari drive through the highway; I was still tense because it was his first time driving ever, but was more comfortable since he'd been behind the wheel for about ten minutes so far. I continued to look at him; compared to the rest of us, he seemed pretty calm and not anxious at all. It was strange since he was the one driving the wheel himself. We made sure to stay a certain speed according to a circular clock like screen that was behind the wheel. I also noticed that the two paddles below Hibari meant for the car to go faster or slower. The big paddle was called the brake while the small one was called the accelerator.

Hibari would occasionally make sharp turns to go into an exit or so in the highway, according to the directions on the map. That really pissed off Gokudera. I couldn't blame Hibari-san, it was his first time. Besides I thought he was doing very well for someone who was driving for the first time ever.

"Arghhh we didn't get to eat earlier." Haru spoke up; her empty stomach felt so uncomfortable, "Are there any other rest stops nearby?"

"Tsunayoshi."

That was my cue to look at the map to provide him directions. It was really hard to read at first, but Gokudera was of lots of help when it came to that.

"There's a rest stop near on A3." I said, pulling the map close to my face so I could see the tiny print letters better. Hibari leaned in towards me to quickly glance the map as well, just to make sure I was correct.

"We'll turn there then." He said.

We left through exit A3, making our way into another rest stop. It was just like the other one with several places to eat, a gas station, bathrooms, etc. Hibari slowly turned into a parking lot which was congested with other cars; he didn't want to end up crashing into one. Truth is, we were all hungry; we had to do this quick though. Hibari turned off the engine of the car; we all immediately relaxed. He placed the key into the pocket of his black gakuran. Watching someone else drive was more stressful than I thought.

When I was about to open the passenger door to get out, Hibari grabbed my arm.

"Wait a second." He said, "We're really close to Vendicare so that means anyone undercover from there could be anywhere. We have to be careful."

"Okay." I replied, my nerves were coming back. If we saw anything remotely suspicious, we would have to make a run for it, or possibly fight. I looked back and saw Gokudera, Yamamoto, and Haru, who were all cramped behind; they gave him short nods, understanding the possible situation we could encounter. Hibari was the first to get out. The rest of did too.

"Thank god! I thought I was going to get squished to death back there!" Gokudera said, stretching his arms behind him. It felt good to finally get out of that car; all of us didn't do well with tight or jammed spaces. I felt sorry for Gokudera, Yamamoto, and Haru who had it twice as worse as me and Hibari. If it were safe enough to fly, we would have done so. Flying beats driving by miles.

Hibari opened the front door of the fast food restaurant we parked closest to. It happened to be one called Burger King.

**~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~**

"I wish my room smelled like this." Yamamoto said as he inhaled the scents of the crispy french fries and grilled burgers.

"Me too." I agreed, "…I'd rather have them smell like chocolate chip cookies though. Those smell better."

The Burger king was incredibly crowded and noisy. I looked at Hibari who was just about ready to bite these people to death; he had an irritated look to his face. This was just an excess of crowding to him; it really pissed him off. In fact we all felt uneasy in this situation. We never were around normal everyday people and being around crowds of them didn't help one bit. I saw Haru cling onto my arm so she wouldn't get separated from us in the sea of people.

The five of us shuffled into different lines so we wouldn't look too suspicious. Haru was with me, Yamamoto and Gokudera were in another one, while Hibari was in one alone. I quickly observed everyone around me, trying to see if anyone looked threatening enough. I might have looked paranoid and maybe even borderline crazy but I was doing this for everyone else's safety. Being chased by Mukuro did this to us. I noticed Hibari doing this as well, but in a less obvious fashion.

It was frustrating because everyone around me looked normal.

"What would you like to order?"

"Ehh?!"

I jumped up and my shoulders tensed.

I saw a woman behind a counter; labels and pictures on a screen of whatever the restaurant served were above her. I immediately relaxed so I wouldn't look strange. That kind of startled of me…I have to relax.

"What would you like to order?" She repeated in a friendlier tone, noticing my uneasiness. Luckily she spoke English.

"Umm…" We had really big appetites and we got hungry waaaay too often, so I would have to order a lot, enough to last us through Vendicare, "I'd like three whoppers, three large fries, 1 small chicken fries, 1 vegi salad, and 1 steakhouse burger."

The woman chuckled, "Are you ordering for your family?"

_For me and Haru actually…_

"Yes." I lied. I didn't want to say this was just for two people, I would get the strangest look ever.

After what felt like forever, we all had our orders finished, paid, and served to us. We placed our trays in one of the tables away from most of the people in the restaurant. I glanced at all the other people in sitting in tables. Most of them looked to be regular families, teens hanging out, kids making a loud ruckus. I sat down warily; Haru sat next to the right of me while Gokudera sat to the left of me. Yamamoto and Hibari sat on the other side of the table.

We willingly dug into our food. Gokudera and Yamamoto were eating the fastest; I wonder when the last time was they actually ate a real meal…

I bit into my whopper sandwich, chewed, and swallowed in one go. I didn't even care what it tasted like, I was so damn hungry! I grabbed my fries by the fistful, shoving them into my mouth as I ate the sandwich. Undoubtedly, I looked ridiculous, but I didn't care right now. Haru did the same with her salad and her fries. Hibari was the only one who had any good manners of eating left in him. I had a sudden flashback to the civilized, normal meals with Fuuta and Nana, where we actually used forks, knives, napkins, and decent manners. If it could only always be like that…

I coughed as I could barely swallow my food. I was eating so fast. I probably looked really silly in front of Hibari-san.

When I was half finished with my meal I noticed that most of the families have left the tables. They were replaced with men who wore army green uniforms. Gokudera and Hibari noticed these men too. They made sure to peek at the men sitting so they wouldn't look too obvious. They had trays of food just like we did and were minding their own business, but something obviously wasn't right.

I nudged Haru; she noticed this too as well as Yamamoto.

My heart beat became incredibly fast.

We had to leave this place right now.

**~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~**

We stole more quick glances at these men who just had to interrupt our appetizing lunch. I nearly let out a groan; it had to have happened now. Hibari motioned us to face him.

"In three seconds, we have to leave through that door." Hibari pointed at a back exit which was closer to us than the front door we came in through.

We all nodded.

Three.

Two.

_One._

Gokudera casually stood up, dusted off his pants of crumbs and made his way towards the door. I followed him, then Haru, then Yamamoto, then finally Hibari. We walked, but didn't run, so we wouldn't make a scene. We kept a fast pace though.

"Shit!" Gokudera whispered, he turned back and saw that the men in the uniforms stood up as well, "So they are after us…"

"Come on!" I nearly yelled.

In just under a second, I forcefully slammed my hands against the back door pushing it open. One after another, we s[ed through the door. Hibari grabbed the car key from his pocket as we made our way to our stolen car. The men were now running towards us.

"Hurry! Open the car!" Haru cried; the men were getting closer and closer.

Hibari turned the key with one swipe of his hand and opened the driver's door. I jumped over the vehicle to get to the front passenger seat. Yamamoto, Haru, and Gokudera squeezed themselves into the back. We immediately slammed all the doors closed. Hibari turned the engine on and cranked the levers. Haru shrieked when one of the men made their way to the back of our car. He carried a large bat; right when he was about to swing the bat to break the back window, Hibari slammed his foot on the accelerator, reversing fast.

"Eek!" Haru shrieked when we felt the 'thunk' of the man being hit from the back of the car.

Hibari cranked the gear stick onto D; he turned the wheel and pressed the accelerator paddle again. He sped through the parking lot, hitting the sides of bushes and shrubs that lined it. I grimaced as I heard the most unpleasant squeals come from the car's sudden turns; Hibari still had trouble mastering those. He pressed the accelerator harder and careened himself onto traffic, getting a few angry honks from other drivers. I turned my head around to the back window, the uniformed men were far enough from us.

"Watch out!" Gokudera shouted.

He swerved the car just as he was about to hit a large traffic barrier. Yamamoto, Haru, and Gokudera, and I were yanked to the left from the sharp turn. I cried as my neck scraped against the edge of the seat belt I was secured to. In seconds we entered back onto the highway. I saw that the men have grabbed cars of their own, all of them black suvs; they were following us onto the highway. My foot quickly tapped in anticipation; we had to get rid of these guys. Hibari cut through a series of other cars and frequently switched lanes, trying to lose them. We were so close to hitting those other cars. Yamamoto and Haru tried holding onto the car hangers above to keep from falling forwards or sideways while Gokudera was clutching his stomach; he felt as if he was going to throw up.

"Can't you go any faster?!" Haru said, frequently turning her head back; she saw that the suvs were gaining on them, "They're catching up to us!"

_Beep! Beep!_

The five of us froze.

"What was that…?" I nervously said.

Hibari nearly shouted out expletives or at least he looked like he was about to.

"What's wrong? What is that sound?" I shook his shoulder. It was then I noticed an orange icon pictured as a gas tank showed up on one of the screens next to the car wheel. There was an arrow pointing towards an E sign.

"Our car is about to run out of gas." Hibari said.

"How do you know that?" Gokudera strained as he covered his stomach.

"That orange gas tank sign." He replied, then said, "I'm going to stop because this car isn't going to go any faster. We all need to jump and get into the air as fast as we can."

"What?" Haru shouted, "But how-"

"We don't have time!" I cried, "They're getting really close to us!"

One of the black suvs was really, really close to the rear of our car. We jerked forward once their car started hitting us in the back. Hibari jerked his arms right, suddenly turning the wheel along. Our bodies jolted right along with the car as he made that sharp turn; my head slammed against the passenger seat window. Hibari swung off of the road landing onto a field of tall grass. We plowed through the grass, not being able to see anything in front of us but…grass. The unevenness of the ground we drove on caused us to aggressively rock back and forth, front and back.

_Damn! _

Three of the SUVS were still following us; the four of us except for Hibari kept our eyes glued on at the back of our car. They continued to drive through the field, catching up to us once again.

We all simultaneously jumped upwards along with our seats once our car curved upwards and back down onto another road. Hibari turned again and went forwards.

_Beep! Beep!_

The gas warning again…

"HIEEE!" I screamed.

Cars were zooming towards us, horns blaring as we speeded opposite of them. We ended up on a road that was going opposite us, just our kind of luck. Hibari turned left and right, trying to avoid crashing head on to those drivers. I saw Haru screaming as well, clutching Gokudera's shoulder as she panicked. Yamamoto did the same, minus the screaming; his face had a tight grimace instead. They must have been suffocating the poor guy. _We're going to die! We're going to die! We're going to dieeee!_

The car was slowly coming to a stop as we went off to a completely separate lane without any cars. The gas ran out.

"Shit!" Hibari cursed as he slammed his fist onto the center of the wheel. I jumped up when I heard the horn blare from him doing that.

All around us, windows smashed. We saw the uniformed men carry large metal bats, surrounding the front sides of our car. Me and Hibari were hauled out of the car by the men. I landed face down on the ground.

"Run!" I yelled to everyone else. I saw Gokudera shoot up into the air and unfurl his wings as he quickly avoided a run in with one of the men. Yamamoto grabbed Haru out of the car; they tried running as well but one of the men smacked Yamamoto on the face, causing him to topple over and loose hold of Haru's hand.

"Yamamoto-kun!" Haru cried; she tried flying away as well but someone grabbed her. She briskly turned around and saw someone familiar; it was Ken, one of Mukuro's subordinates. He also wore an army green uniform.

"Run Yamamoto! Get out of here!" I shouted; no one had caught him yet; he could still get out free.

"But-!"

"Go!" I said, unable to wriggle free from their grasp on my arms.

He zoomed upwards and flew where Gokudera managed to escape to. I saw Haru next to me; tears were filling her eyes as she was pinned to the ground. Hibari was also trapped between the tight holds of the men; his tonfas were confiscated from him; he was sure going to be pissed.

"Aghh!" I felt a hard boot come in contact with my back as I was still restrained. The kick was so hard that I tasted blood down my throat.

"Tsunayoshi…"

I spun my head back. It was Mukuro once again. Of course he managed to find us. He grabbed a fistful of my hair, pulling my head back. I winced from the pain that shot through my neck. He aggressively shoved my head forwards before kicking me down to the ground. Mukuro kicked me once again, turning me over in the process; he placed his foot onto my back and pressed. I shouted out loud in agony.

"Tsuna-san!"

"Don't resist or I'll shoot all you three." Mukuro said, taking a gun out from his pocket, aiming particularly at Hibari. His foot was still on my back; I coughed up blood from the sheer weight of his foot.

Then we all heard the familiar sound of a chopper coming our way. I squinted my eyes as the wind of the propellers blew dust towards our eyes.

"Vindice changed their minds; we're off to Vendicare."

**~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~**

"Boss!"

My eyes snapped open. My pupils moved back and forth; all I could see were bars. I immediately shot up.

"Boss!"

I turned around to the source of the noise.

To the left of me I saw a girl with purple hair, with an eyepatch that hid her right eye, she wore an oversized grey t-shirt with grey pants. That must have been a Vendicare uniform.

"Chrome!" I whisper-shouted. I couldn't believe it. She was here…right here! I rubbed my eyes, just in case I was dreaming. I opened them back up and she was still there. I was about to give her hug when I realized I was also inside a cage. It was a few feet away from hers; not too far, but far enough that I couldn't touch her cage with the tips of my fingers.

Chrome was alive and well…or at least she looked okay from what I could see, except for a reddish purple bruise on her cheek. A smile grew on my features.

"A-are you okay?" I asked, my voice was sort of raspy.

"I'm really tired, but I'm fine." Chrome replied, she gave me back a small smile. I felt so bad…for taking so long to get here. She was probably suffering more than she looked to be, but didn't want me to worry too much. Vindice had the chance to do a bunch of sick experiments on her while we took our time…it made me feel so guilty.

"I'm sorry, Chrome…" I quietly said, my head faced down.

"It's not your fault…" She replied.

I looked at her again; she had slight eye bags under her large purple eyes. They barely even gave her rest! She looked so tired. I curled my fists…these people were going to pay. I was so angry at what they did to her.

"Yes it is." I said, "I let this happen. I let them do this to you…I let them kidnap Hibari-san and Haru too…"

"You can't blame yourself for everything, boss." She replied, holding onto her cage bars.

"E-eto…call me Tsuna." I nervously said.

"Sorry!" She bowed her head down, "I keep forgetting."

I slightly laughed; it came a bit hoarse. I coughed from the exertion I placed on my throat.

"Speaking of Hibari-san and Haru…where are they?" I said as I looked around the place. It was dimmed; all I could see were other cages, some containing genetically engineered experiments done by Vendicare themselves. A wide walkway separated us from the other cages across.

"Tsuna-san!"

I turned to my right and saw Haru inside a cage, at the corner of me; Hibari's cage was on top of hers. I could barely see them.

"Haru!" Chrome's eyes widened.

"Chrome-chan! Is that you?"" Haru's eyes gleamed, then shifted, trying to find where her cage exactly was. Mines sort of blocked hers, "Where are you?"

"I'm across Tsuna." She replied, then she changed the subject, "There's something I need to tell you guys…"

"What is it-"

The sound of a door opening interrupted us.

All around me, the smells of chemicals and antiseptic were awakening horrible memories I had at Vendicare a long time ago. Flashes of light, pain, and fear popped inside my head. I clutched my head, as I felt a pounding headache. What was this…? We heard loud footsteps come closer to us. I gritted my teeth, the pounding became more and more intense. I looked at Chrome; her eyes were trembling in sheer panic. What was going on?

"Nnngh…" I grimaced.

I saw a pair of legs right in front of my crate; I could see the edges of a white lab coat brushing the knees. With all my strength I forced myself to raise my head up. The headache was too much.

I nearly recoiled backwards when I realized who it was in front of my cage.

"Iemitsu…?" My voice was strained as I clutched my head.

_He was alive…?_

**~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~**

**And there's chapter 10! I looooove leaving these cliff hangers. It's shorter than the past two but I hope you enjoyed this one. Chapter 11 will be longer! Please R&R!**


	11. Chapter 11

I couldn't believe this…I really couldn't. I kept staring; it's been four years since I've seen him. All those years we thought he died…but he didn't. He was right here, in the flesh. He looked the same as I last seen him, except for the fact he was wearing a lab coat. That really puzzled me. Iemitsu was the only parentlike figure I've ever had. He kidnapped the six of us from Vendicare four years ago when he "worked" there. He actually didn't perform any experiments, it was just his job to watch all the experiments and report to Vendicare on how they were doing. He fed us, clothed us, taught us how to fly better, to fight, read, everything I could think of. He was a great father to us.

"Tsuna…you've grown a lot since I last seen you..." Iemitsu spoke up. He gave me a warm smile.

My mouth opened, but nothing came out. I didn't know what to say. We thought he was killed by Vendicare themselves, knowing that he would rather die than give away our location. I thought I would have a lot to say to him, telling him stuff like how surprised I was to see him and what happened to us in the past few days. I quickly glanced at Chrome who had an equal amount of surprise on her face; she kept her eyes on me and Iemitsu. I knew Haru and Hibari-san were shocked too, but I was too focused on Iemitsu to notice.

We spent years mourning over his loss. I was the one who took it the worst, nearly spiraling into a deep depression. Everyone else insisted I was the closest to him so that was inevitable. He was the one I looked up to the most.

I saw Chrome's uneasiness. I knew there was something different about him. Something was telling me that Iemitsu was one of them…or that he had been alongside Vendicare this whole entire time. My eyes trembled. I didn't know whether to trust him or not. Part me wanted to think that he was here to help us again…but I couldn't fall easily for this possible trap. Iemitsu taught us to be cautious about everything. That's how I was going to be.

"You must be really surprised." He hesitated, "…I need to talk to you."

His voice sounded genuine.

He unlocked my cage and unlatched it. He pulled it open. I paused for a moment. What do I do? I knew that I had to think twice about this, but I honestly didn't know what to do.

However, I needed answers and maybe he could give them to me…

I reluctantly crawled out, my muscles aching as I moved. I stole a quick glance at Hibari, just to see if he would be okay with his. He slightly nodded; judging from his expression, he looked very reluctant about what I was going to do, but it seemed as if he wanted me to make this decision myself. I gave him one nod back and continued to follow Iemitsu.

**~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~**

Iemitsu and I walked past lines of computers, completely out of sight from the other workers. I looked around and noticed the familiar cold, metal walls. Above were the dimmed lights as usual…typical of Vendicare. There was a door in a far corner of the fall. Iemitsu used another key to open it. It led into a smaller, yet more comfortable room with couches, a table, and chairs.

"Please sit down, Tsuna." He gently pulled a chair out from the table which sat at the center of the room.

I slowly walked to the chair, almost regretting my decision to follow him in here. My anxieties weren't helping me one bit; I sat on the chair and nearly twitched once I felt how cold it was. I watched Iemitsu grab two mugs placing them into the microwave. He pressed a few buttons, heating the mugs up. After heating them up he placed one teabag into each of them.

"Green tea?" He offered, holding one of the mugs towards me, "It's hot so grab onto the handle."

It was strange. Iemitsu often made us green tea during the evenings; we all were originally Japanese and a lot of Japanese families liked drinking green tea. It was a cultural thing to him. After all these years, he still remembers. He would always tell me not to grab the sides of the mug knowing how clumsy and forgetful I was. I frowned, all these memories were too agonizing to think of.

I slowly grabbed the mug…from the handle and placed it in front of me.

Iemitsu grabbed the chair across from me and sat down.

"Tsuna…" He began, "I'm so proud of you. I can't believe how well you have done."

I couldn't look him in the eye; my eyes were glued onto the clear green liquid in my mug. From what he just said, it almost seemed as if I was some sort of pawn…or test of his…

"You must have a lot of questions." He continued, "I don't know where to start…I'm-I'm just so sorry about this…I wish I could explain…but in time, it will all come out. You'll understand what's happening."

My lips trembled. He sounded so different.

"I told Chrome, I told her that everything is a test even when you don't know it. _All of this has been a test_."

It was all coming together. Iemitsu planned all of this…even after all these years he was on their side. I felt my eyes get watery. I couldn't believe it; our guardian who cared for us all these years, like a father…did this…? I gritted my teeth, I couldn't stop trembling; my head was facing the table the entire time. Iemitsu noticed this. All this time I hadn't said a single word to him, but he knew every single emotion I was feeling.

"Tsuna." He said, "Some people will come in to talk to you, but I need to tell you something first."

It was then I looked up to him.

"I couldn't tell you before, for a good reason, something I thought I'd have time to prepare you for later once you were older."

He looked around, almost as if he was making sure that no one else could hear.

"What I wanted to say was…" He began, his voice quieter than it was before, "You're very special, much more special than I made you out to be. You were created for a reason and kept alive for a purpose...not just to protect your family. A very special purpose."

I trembled even more if that was possible. I didn't want to hear this. I regretted coming out, I should have stayed back at my cage. Iemitsu looked straight into my eyes, his smaller brown eyes boring into mines. My nerves shot up a million times.

"You are supposed to save the world."

**~Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~**

I was still silent, but shocked. The whole thing sounded cliché, but it really surprised me. I was an experiment of Vendicare, that was something special…but me saving the world? I was only dame-tsuna, there was only so much I could do.

"I can't tell you anymore than that right now." He said, "But I had to let you know the size of what we're dealing with right now. You are more than special, you and your family are a part of something you don't know yet. You have a given destiny."

Now this was when I really wanted to ask him a question. What exactly was I a part of? Was it some undercover society that exclusive members belonged in? I hated that he was so vague…

"Tsuna, everything you've done, everything you are, everything you can be, is tied into your destiny. We all play a part in it and have been doing so even before you were born."

Iemitsu never took his eyes off me; he probably knew every ounce of emotion I was feeling and he was using that to his advantage. I just didn't know how. Part of me thought that this was a trap, but it was all too unclear for me to understand at the moment. It absolutely frustrated me.

"What is this?" I heard myself say.

I spoke without thinking.

Iemitsu's eyes widened, surprised I spoke at all. I saw the shock in his face; he was completely different from the Iemitsu a few seconds ago. However, before he replied, he knowingly went back to his previous detached expression. He didn't want to slip in front of me; he knew what he was doing…

"I never wanted to tell you." He replied, "I don't want you to tell anyone either."

He hesitated; I could see that he was slipping out of his façade. It's as if he didn't plan or want to tell this part to me.

"…You and your family have been born into the Mafia." He continued, "This is a secret between me and several other trusted companions. Before you were born it was our objective to create this Mafia…taking a group of super humans created from experiments to save the world and destroy the others who vow to get in the way. You were made to be its current leader. The current leader of the Vongola Famigilia."

My lips trembled once again. I was a part of a Mafia…? That was my purpose? Iemitsu taking us away from Vendicare, training and preparing us, all this entire time, was to train us to be guardians of a Mafia? I nervously shifted my mug of green tea; it was barely warm by now. Again, I didn't know what to say. Was this even a good thing? All I felt was that Iemitsu betrayed me this entire time.

"You must promise me this."

I looked up at him.

"Do not tell anyone."

"Why…?" I quietly said.

"There are reasons I can't tell; it will all come into place and the world will eventually know."

I clenched my fists. This was way too much to take in at once. The Vongola family…? I've heard stories about the Mafia, from movies and all, but to be a part of it…? It scared me to death. I felt like even if I tried avoiding all this, it wouldn't be possible.

He stood up and helped me from my chair. I nearly flinched when he touched my back with his hand. We walked in silence back to the row of cages; he unlatched mines and waited for me to get inside before closing and locking it again. I saw Chrome, Haru, and Hibari-san give me curious stares; I didn't even look them in the eye.

"Tsuna." he whispered. "Trust me. That's all I ask. Just trust me."

Trust him…? That was a lot of him to ask me right at this moment. Especially since all he saw me as was his experiment created to be the leader of the Vongola Mafia family. Those words that he said never left me though. However, I would only take them with a grain of salt. It all sounded too outrageous for me. Maybe it was because we lived a fairly peaceful life for the past four years, besides believing that Iemitsu died.

All these thoughts bombarded my head as I watched Iemitsu walk away.

"What happened?" I heard Haru ask, "What did he say to you?"

I clutched the bars of my cage. I paused, having no idea what to say to her without sounding too suspicious.

"…Tsuna-san…?"

"He told me to hang in there." I lied, "…He asked how everyone else was doing too…"

"Oh…" Haru replied. From the sound of her voice, she didn't believe me one bit. She didn't say anymore because she assumed that I might feel uncomfortable.

"Is everyone okay?" I asked.

I saw Chrome nod across from me; Hibari did the same while Haru uttered a yes. I stole a glance at Hibari; he obviously knew that I wasn't telling the truth. He knew me very well. I wasn't a very good liar though. I really hoped wouldn't force the truth out of me…

**~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~**

Several hours went by. To my surprise, it was fairly silent between me and the others. We thought we would have a lot more to say, considering that the man we once thought was dead for so long was actually alive. We couldn't really discuss a plan to escape because there were cameras and mics all of the place which could easily catch us.

Plus I couldn't tell anyone anything, or at least that's what Iemitsu said. I was quite surprised I was listening to him like that. However, part of me thought that he was telling the truth and that if I told someone else, something really bad would happen to me. I guess it was best to keep it a secret after all. I sighed.

What were we supposed to do…

"…Tsuna?"

I heard Chrome; I turned to her direction.

"Where's Yamamoto-sama and Gokudera-sama?" She quietly asked. I nearly forgot about those two; I seriously hoped they were okay and that they could come help soon…

I shook my head, but then I moved my lips.

"They escaped." I mouthed out to her.

She widened her eyes and nodded; I could see relief in her expression. She also hoped that those two would devise some sort of plan to help us.

Afterwards, all we could do was make small talk with each other, nothing suspicious. We wouldn't want Vendicare themselves or even Iemitsu to catch us. This, however, went on for hours. I laid on my side clutched my head; I felt another soaring headache come about. I shut my eyes, trying to alleviate the pain but it didn't work. All these images kept coming about as I closed my eyes. I couldn't describe them. It was the strangest thing I've ever experienced.

I gritted my teeth as the pain continued.

In an hour or so, a door opened. My headache subsided and I pulled myself up. A crowd of people came in. I saw Mukuro, Ken, and Chikusa, followed by several lab workers. The labworkers wheeled a large flatbed cart to our aisle of cages. I saw Haru, Hibari, and Chrome keep their eyes glued onto them. I saw hardly restrained anger on Hibari's face as he glared at Mukuro from behind his bars.

"There's only four of them." One of the lab workers said; he had a disappointed and slightly angry tone to his voice.

"Two of the others managed to escape." Mukuro replied, then flashed me a condescending smirk, "This is what's left."

"Is the director quite sure about this?" Another lab worker, a female, asked. She looked different from the other workers; instead of a more conservative uniform, hers was with a short skirt and boots. She had a large afro, "It seems a shame…there's so much more we can learn from them."

What were they talking about? I looked at Chrome and she had the same confused look.

"Yes, he is. He won't change his mind, you know him." One of them replied, "It's too risky at this moment."

What were they planning to do to us originally…and what were they going to do now? I heard the sound of a whip then a large clang; I shot my head towards the source of the noise. Chrome's cage was swung onto the cart by a muscle scrum. The purple haired girl let out a wince as she covered her cheek which became bruised from the impact. The woman, named Iris, carried what looked to be like whip surrounded by purple flames.

She cracked the whip towards the muscle scrum again. It let out a loud cry; its already large muscles expanded. I felt my stomach go wary from that sight. I nearly yelled when the scrum grabbed my cage; it threw mines along with me onto cart. It landed with a crash, causing my head to hit the ceiling. I bit my lip to prevent myself from screaming in pain.

"Easy, easy. My adorable little creature." Iris cooed, petting it at the back of its head.

"Are you okay?" Chrome asked.

I nodded my head, giving her a slight thumbs up.

The same muscle scrum loaded Haru and Hibari next to us on the cart. Afterwards, the lab workers pushed us through wide double doors that were in front of us. I squinted my eyes from the sudden light from the hall we entered.

"Those experiments of yours are disgusting." Ken laughed in a haughty tone of voice.

"Watch what you say," Iris glared at him, not finding his taunts and teasing one bit hilarious, "They're a lot stronger than you. They can easily tear you to shreds."

Ken continued laughing as he walked past her; Chikusa followed the blonde haired male, trying to keep up with his pace. I nearly covered my nose from the harsh smells of floor cleaner and office machines. Even though my headache lessened, it was still there. The smells just made it worse.

I clutched the bars of my crate and looked around, trying to recognize what section of Vendicare we were in. I slightly swerved from the sharp turn the cart made before we pushed through more double swinging doors. We were outside. I inhaled, trying to get some fresh air in. I almost gagged when I inhaled the foulest air ever. Even when outdoors, Vindice was tainted with the scent of chemicals.

I shifted from side to side in my cage, trying to look around the lab workers who blocked my view. Behind me there was the lab building we just left, ahead of us there was a smaller steel building. Soldiers with bandages around their faces and long black coats guarded the area. Between the buildings was a wide yard we were in. Some of Vendicare's experiments were trained in this area, like the infamous muscle scrum.

Back when we were trapped in Vindice, we would glance at this area whenever we has the chance to. We would see inhuman training that the muscle scrum would go through at this very same yard.

**~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~**

What they were about to do to us, I had no idea, but knowing Vendicare, it was probably going to be something painstakingly horrible. We had to escape. We couldn't stay here any longer. Right now my choices were either to give up and let them do whatever it is they are going to do with us…or fight back.

How was this going to work?

I bit my bottom lip, looking around for ideas.

I saw Chrome; she looked back at me. I had a feeling that she knew what I was trying to do. My heart skiped a beat when I saw Mukuro walk towards Chrome's cage. I watched his every movement, gritting my teeth. Him having the nerve to do this just angered me. Mukuro bent over until he was at knee level; facing Chrome directly in the eyes. I so badly wanted to tell him to stay away from her…

My hands gripped harder on the cage bars.

Chrome trembled as Mukuro let his hand inside the cage. He placed his hand under Chrome's chin; she immediately recoiled and snapped her head away. He grabbed her chin again, this time in a more forceful manner, forcing her to face him. I hadn't felt this much anger in one place before, but I was pissed.

"My dear Chrome…" He said.

Chrome's eyelids were turned down; she refused to look at him.

Mukuro noticed this and belligerently slapped her across the cheek. Chrome's head turned sideways from the force of his hit. She clutched her already bruised cheek. My heartbeat increased rapidly; Mukuro has never pissed me off this much before…ever.

"_Look at me when I'm talking to you_." His voice was as cold as shards.

"No." Chrome finally said. Her voice was solid, there was still some fear in her eyes but she was firm. I was proud but afraid for her at the same time.

Mukuro's face was barely showing the seething anger he felt right now; he quickly returned to his trademark smirk, realizing that Chrome wasn't going to cooperate with him.

Haru, who was next to me, exhibited the same fear I had. She looked like she didn't want Chrome to disrespect him any longer because she would get hurt more. However my attention immediately diverged to the cage I was in, once I caught something different about it. My eyes widened.

The latch that locked me in was loose.

It must have been from how hard the muscle scrum threw my cage onto the cart. The lock must have broke from that impact.

I paused for a moment.

I looked around me and saw the lab workers, including Iris a few feet away from us discussing something. Mukuro and his subordinates were closer to us. I saw Haru, Chrome, and Hibari mulling about their business. I slightly hit my knuckles against the metal surface of my cage floor, catching their attention; the noise wasn't loud enough for Mukuro and the others to hear.

Haru and Chrome looked beside me; Hibari who was further away did the same. I silently pointed to the loose latch. Haru's eyes widened; a grin spreading on her face. I saw a key hanging from one of the lab workers coat.

I knew what I was going to do now.

I felt my heart pound over and over again. To tell you the truth, I was frightened for my life, but this was the only way we could escape right now. I breathed in and out to calm myself. Haru, Hibari, and Chrome watched me closely, waiting for me to start.

I leaned towards the front of my cage.

In a matter of seconds.

I pushed.

Hard.

I zoomed out of the crate. Mukuro and his subordinates were the first to notice. No…they're not stopping me …not in a million years. I unfurled my wings and skyrocketed towards the lab worker who had the key. My hand was outstretched the entire time so I could easily grab it.

"One of them has escaped!" Ken yelled.

"No shit." Mukuro muttered; he was slowly losing his cool again. He grabbed his trident that was strapped to his back and ran towards me. Ken and Chikusa quickly followed him.

All the lab workers were yelling at me by now. Some of them yelling at Mukuro to catch me. I was absolutely terrified, but completely satisfied with all the panic the workers were exhibiting. They seriously could not deal with the fact that one of their own experiments escaped them.

"Come on Tsuna-san!" I heard Haru; her hands clutching the bars of her cage. She so badly wanted to get out of there.

I turned sideways narrowly missing a yoyo right before I snatched the key from the worker's coat. That same worker immediately noticed this.

"The key!" He yelled, "It stole it! It's going to open their cages!"

"Hiee!" I cried. I fell sideways I tripping on my back as I tried to make my way back to the cages. Ken pounced on me; he looked slightly different before. His hair was more unruly and this time orange. The key I was carrying managed to fly straight out of my hands.

Shit Shit Shit!

Luck was on my side once again; Hibari managed to catch the key. He quickly opened his lock and flew out.

"Another one escaped!" Iris shouted, "Go! Muscle scrum! Get him!"

Iris used her purple flamed whip against the monstrosity. It extended its arms; Hibari easily dodged them. He landed on top of Haru's cage and dropped the key between the bars. Haru jumped up and luckily caught the keys.

"Ahh!" Haru shouted as she felt the muscle scrum smash its fist on top of her cage of where Hibari previously was. She turned her key against the lock and jerked it down, opening it. She opened herself up and ran towards Chrome's cage.

"Hahi!"

Haru's hand was tangled in between a mass of yoyo string; she tried pulling her arm away from it but it was no use. Chikusa was pulling her arm while I was still pinned down by Ken. Hibari didn't have his tonfas with him so he couldn't fight that well as of now.

"Chrome-chan, catch!" Haru shouted. She threw the key right outside Chrome's cage. She grabbed it from the ground and opened it. Right when she saw about to push the cage door to get out; it slammed back in. I looked up and saw Mukuro hand pushed against the door, shutting Chrome back in.

"She's not going anywhere-"

Mukuro's pupils swerved sideways and he immediately fell forwards…onto the ground.

I looked behind him and saw Yamamoto. He carried a metal baseball bat, tapping it on his other hand. Chrome took this opportunity to escape from her cage. I heard a few explosions from behind and saw Gokudera up in the air, his silver wings flapping alongside him.

"Were we late?" Yamamoto grinned.

"Yamamoto! Gokudera-kun!" I shouted; more happiness enveloping me. I noticed that Ken was distracted from the sudden commotion; I slammed my elbow backwards, hitting him in the chest. He let out an oof noise and fell backwards; a pair of fake teeth fell out of his mouth. His hair changed back to blonde, resembling himself again. I saw Haru untangle herself from the yoyo string after Chikusa became distracted as well.

"Juudaime! Watch out!"

I rolled over when I felt the muscle scrum slam his arm on the ground beside me; I immediately rolled the other way when he slammed his arm again. I heard some more bomb sounds. More screams and shouts from the lab workers were heard. I had to resist from smiling…it was good to see these people scared, for once in their life. It was total karma for them.

"Hibari your tonfas!" Gokudera said; dropping his steel weapons down on him.

He caught them with ease. Right when a lab worker was about to creep up on him, he turned around and swiped his tonfas against his chest. He sank down to his knees and fell forwards, getting knocked out in the process. Regular humans couldn't stand a chance against us. Hibari let out a little smirk; that was exhilarating, it was good to have his tonfas back.

This was our cue.

"Hibari-san!" I shouted over the noise, "Let's go!"

I looked up above us; Gokudera, Yamamoto, Chrome, and Haru were already up in the air. Hibari and I immediately zoomed upwards at breakneck pace. Gokudera pulled six more bombs from his coat, each intertwined between his fingers and dropped them below, creating a large explosion. A chunk of the lab building fell off.

"That's for the shit you put Chrome through!" Gokudera yelled.

More lab workers and Vendicare workers with army green uniforms came out of the building. I saw that Chrome was losing altitude with the rest of us; Haru immediately swooped down and grabbed Chrome to help her catch up with the rest of us. She must have been really tired.

"Tsuna!"

That voice. I immediately looked downwards.

Iemitsu stood there. My eyes widened, but soon narrowed. I'm not going to let him catch me off guard. All I had to think about was escaping with my family. I saw him clutching onto his shoulder, blood pooled at the side of it. That must have been from Gokudera's dynamite attack.

"Tsunayoshi!" He yelled again.

He wasn't angry. He sounded…disappointed, rather.

"Tsuna, please! This was all test! Don't you get it?! You were safe here! This was only a test! You have to trust me…I'm the only one you can trust! Please! Come back…let me explain!"

I continued to stare at him. This was the man who saved our lives four years ago; he clothed us, fed us, taught us, and trained us. He was the closest thing I've ever had to a dad. However, all this time…he was preparing us to be his pawns for some Mafia. I was in no position to trust him right now.

My face trembled; I looked below and saw the crowds of Vendicare workers in a state of panic as part of their building lay in smoke. Several lab workers lay flat on the ground; there was an uproar of shouting and distressed voices. Iemitsu stood before them, the only one standing in one place. He looked up at us, clutching his shoulder which was pooled with blood. I felt my eyes water.

Hibari held onto my shoulder to comfort me. It was unlike him but he knew how uncomfortable I was, but judging from his expression, it was time to go. I looked at him and nodded.

We both flew further…up to where our family was waiting. Iemitsu watched as we left him to deal with the terror below.

**~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~**

Two hours later, lake Fucine came into view. I landed flat on my stomach in the same cave we stayed in; I was so tired, but so relieved. Once Chrome landed she nearly collapsed, but Haru helped her retain her balance.

"I can't believe you're back!" Haru was the first to talk, visibly crying. She could barely speak through her tears, "I can't believe it! I thought I would never see you again!"

She enveloped Chrome into a tight hug; Chrome couldn't help but smile, she eagerly hugged Haru back.

"I missed all of you." She replied, still hugging Haru who sniffled onto her shoulder, "…They did so many terrible things to me."

Gokudera clenched his fists, "If I was there any longer, I would have exploded the entire building myself."

I let out a sheepish grin, nervously laughing, "Is-is that even possible Gokudera-kun? Most of the building is made out of steel."

"I can try, Juudaime!" He replied.

I looked over at Chrome and Haru who continued conversing with each other, occasionally giggling a bit. Gokudera and Yamamoto stood across from them frequently asking questions about what Chrome went through, Gokudera sometimes getting angry at Yamamoto for being clueless at times. Chrome's face would light up and blush from Haru's and Yamamotos outrageous affection they showered at her. It was so good to have them laughing and smiling again. I was so thankful. I couldn't help but to smile too.

"This is how it should be always…" I said to myself. No more fighting, just us being a happy family.

I interrupted myself out of my mushy thoughts and faced Hibari who was leaning against the cave wall away from the rest of us. He caught my glance; my heartbeat rapidly increased, I smiled at him. Hibari motioned for me to come closer to him; I hesitated but obliged.

Once I was close enough to him, he placed his hand on my fluffy locks of brown hair. I looked up at Hibari, not used to this type of affection from him.

"Hi-Hibari-san…" I felt a blush creep up my cheeks.

"Herbivore..." He quietly said, "You did well today."

He ruffled my locks before giving me a slight push, motioning me to get back to the others. I grinned and uttered a thank you before making my way.

"Ahhh! I love all of you!" Haru exclaimed, her best friend was back; I couldn't blame her for being this happy.

Gokudera tched, "…Really?"

"Come on Gokudera, loosen up!" Yamamoto laughed.

After we all got a few hours of nap time, which we so desperately needed, I woke up to rain. I looked at the opening, it was pouring outside. It was a lot cooler too. I looked around and saw Chrome and Haru asleep next to each other; Gokudera leaned against the cave wall while Yamamoto fell asleep, absently leaning against his shoulder. I snorted through my nose, Gokudera was going to wake up angry.

Hibari was still awake, as if he was keeping watch. He sat closest to the opening. Since I couldn't fall back asleep, I crawled over to him, sitting across from him. He looked at me before looking back out at the pouring rain. I did the same. It was complete comfortable silence, just the sound of rain pelting down. I shivered as the rain blew a gust towards our way, a few of the drops landing on us.

It felt so nice.

"Iemitsu knows our house…he'll find us if we go back there." I spoke up, breaking the silence, "That is, if it's not destroyed."

Hibari looked back at me, "We need a new home."

That was no problem.

"Where would we go?" I asked, looking outside again.

After much hesitation, Hibari replied, "East. We'll go east."

I raised my eyebrows, wanting Hibari to elaborate more.

"We're going east to Tokyo, Japan."

**~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~**

**I decided this is where I should add the whole Mafia theme in. I figured that it would fit in well enough with what Iemitsu is planning. I don't think I'm going to include Reborn. It depends on how the story comes about. **

**But anyways, Please R&R! Chapter 12 will come very soon!**


	12. Chapter 12

"Japan! I can't believe we're going to Japan!" Haru shouted in disbelief and excitement.

We were airborne, getting ready to fly east to Tokyo. It was going to take several days, but we would be very far away from Vendicare. Japan technically was our second home even though we've never set foot in the country. I glanced at Haru who had a jolly grin on her face the entire time; she's always wanted to go to Tokyo.

It was the infamous capital of Japan and the most populated metropolitan area in the world. From what I heard the city had many tourist attractions, events, and restaurants. It was also a hub of technology. That had to be interesting. I was excited too, mostly because we all were finally together. The six of us were homeless and on-the run; that was perfectly fine. As long as we weren't separated. I let the sun warm me over; it felt good, a nice contrast compared to the cold rain yesterday.

I glanced over at Chrome; she was fully awake, but she still had several bruises around her, especially the one on her cheek. It was going to take me awhile to get over how much they hurt her. Chrome saw me looking at her; she gave me a small smile. I smiled back at her.

I looked ahead; the wind blew against us. Gokudera and Yamamoto flew alongside me, while Hibari was ahead of us. Chrome and Haru were slightly behind us. We didn't say much because we were in a hurry to fly to Japan; before we set flight we grabbed a quick breakfast so we wouldn't die of hunger early on.

"Why can't it be like this always?" I heard Haru say.

"I wish it was." Yamamoto replied to Haru, "Flying is so therapeutic."

Haru nodded, "Yup! I feel sorry for regular kids who are always stuck in school and have chores."

Fuuta came into my thoughts once again; I remember me and Nana dropping him off for a long yellow vehicle to pick him up. Part of me was curious about school, but the other part was thankful that I didn't have to go there. The idea of doing homework or assignments daily for a grade intimidated me. I felt like I wouldn't be too good at it at all.

It was quiet between the six of us again. I relaxed, letting the wind calmly brush against my skin.

Then, in the next second, I choked, and brutally coughed. Then a blinding, stunning pain exploded behind my eyes.

"Juudaime?!" I heard Gokudera exclaim.

My mouth felt like it was screwed shut; I couldn't speak at all. My eyes were closed; I felt paralyzed. My wings folded back and I starting falling straight down.

**~Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~**

I felt tears escape my eyes; they quickly blew across my cheeks from the harsh wind. I clutched my head; my headache was back, but this time it was twice as worse. It felt like someone bashed my skull into a million pieces with a titanium bat. I grimaced, firmly scrunching my hair. I wanted this to be over so badly.

I felt arms scoop me up; I was rising again. I forced my eyes open, barely squinting. Hibari-san caught me. I was caught in his embrace, his firm arms keeping me from falling. My wings were mushed between us. I let out a pained groan as I felt my headache slowly dissipate. I fully open my eyes again before letting go of my head. I felt beads of sweat drip down my cheeks; I absently clutched Hibari's white dress shirt, burrowing myself deeper into his embrace. I must have looked so embarrassing in front of him, but I didn't care. I was too scared to care.

I looked up at Hibari before snapping out of it. I loosened my hold and blinked up at him.

"…S-sorry." My voice barely came out as a grunt.

"What happened?" He asked, making sure he didn't let go of me. He tightened his arm around my back, while the other held my knees up.

I shook my head; I was still too panicked to speak. He probably took that as an 'I don't know'. I looked around and saw that the others caught up with us.

"Juudaime!" Gokudera yelled, "What's wrong? Are you okay?"

I slightly nodded; I at least felt better than a few seconds ago. He flew right next to me and Hibari.

"C-can we find a place to land…?" I managed to utter, but I was still in shock.

Hibari nodded; he looked very, very concerned.

I had no idea what just happened, but I was really scared.

**~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~**

An hour later, I was almost recovered. My headache was gone, I could speak clearly again. We set up camp in the middle of a forest; we weren't sure of what country we were in yet, but Hibari was sure we were bordering Ukraine and Russia since we flew all day. I brought my knees to my chest sitting across from a stack of firewood. Gokudera and Yamamoto were preparing the fireplace. Chrome sat beside me, making sure I was okay.

"Hey, watch it!" Gokudera shouted, "You're going to burn me to a crisp!"

Yamamoto nearly lit a match towards Gokudera, "Oops…it isn't lighting up though."

"Let me try it then." The silver haired male scoffed, snatching the matchbox away from him. With one swipe he easily lit up the match before setting it in the firewood, "Wasn't that easy."

"Hahi! The trees are too close to the fire; we're going to burn the forest down."

Gokudera stole one of Hibari's tonfas that lay by his side. Hibari was getting some shut eye at the moment, using Haru's backpack as a headrest. He used the tonfa to slash the nearby tree branches that reached the fire, before discarding the bunches of leaves.

"What are you doing with that?"

Gokudera spun back and saw Hibari; his eyes open. He was a really light sleeper; the sound of a calm breeze could snap him awake.

"I was clearing the path with your tonfas. None of us have knives. What are you going to do about it?"

"I'll bite you to death." Hibari replied, still laying back, "…After this nap. I'm tired. Don't wake me up again."

"Bring it." Gokudera muttered.

I let out an exasperated sigh. Gokudera was always ready for a fight. I saw Haru hold onto a large bag of food, anything that looked like it could be cooked over a fire. Her and Chrome grabbed the food out of the bag; wrapped sausages, bell peppers, wrapped uncooked chicken on a stick, disk shaped pieces of dough, uncooked meatballs, and sticks were sprawled against the ground. After we landed, we decided go to the closest store to buy the food, hence the amount we had right now.

Twenty minutes later, we all gathered around the fireplace cooking whatever we wanted to cook. I looked up; the sun was starting to set. I prayed to god that nobody would miraculously find us here while we were asleep. I twirled the sausage attached to the kabob stick over the fire while mulling about those thoughts.

"Wow this tastes better than I thought. We should do this more often…" Yamamoto bit onto a piece of chicken, "Tsuna are you feeling better now?"

"Yeah." I nodded, "I had a really bad headache, but it's gone now."

"Don't push yourself too hard Juudaime." Gokudera said before he bit onto a sandwich he made with the bread and sausage. I smiled and nodded, trying my best to reassure him that I was alright.

I bit onto the sausage, savoring the spicy meat. I hugged my knees closer, trying my best to relax. I had no idea what that pain was about, but I knew it was slowly getting worse. I couldn't keep worrying about it, but I was incredibly scared so that wasn't possible at the moment. The scary thing was that this never happened to me before…and all of a sudden after coming back to Vendicare, it started. Maybe those scientists must have injected me with something while I was knocked out in my cage. That place was cursed in every way possible.

**~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~**

"Tsuna…"

_Nudge. Nudge._

I felt a slight prod on my shoulder. I stirred before opening my eyes. I looked up and saw Chrome above me; behind her the sun was barely rising, parts of the sky still dark.

"Tsuna, wake up." Chrome whispered.

I rubbed my eyes before pushing myself up. I yawned.

"What is it?" I sleepily said; not noticing how loud my voice was. I looked around us. Everyone else was still asleep; it was barely morning though.

"Shh." Chrome hushed, she briskly looked around and let out a sigh of relief when no one woke up. Her large purple eyes looked into my brown ones.

"…I have a secret. When I was in Vindice, I have information. It's about us…about where we came from."

I was fully awake when she said that. Information…?

"How did you get it? Where is it-"

"I heard them say stuff." She replied, almost whispering.

I was waiting for her to continue as I nervously fidgeted with the ends of my thumbs. I bit the bottom of my lip. Was this going to be a bad thing or a good thing?

"I didn't hear everything because I was far from them, but I heard plenty." She continued, "They were talking about…"

Chrome paused for a moment, trying her best to remember what it was they exactly said. She was still a bit groggy from being awake this early of the day so her thoughts were harder to collect.

"…they were talking about a certain place, where they had files about our personal information."

"Do you know what the place is called?" I immediately asked. My curiosity was right about obvious by now.

"Kokuyo Land." Chrome replied, "It's actually in Japan. There's a building where they keep files and I think it's very top secret between Vendicare."

"…Kokuyo land." I repeated, absorbing all this sudden information, "Is-Is it in Tokyo?"

"I don't know." She replied, her head down. She looked quite ashamed, ashamed she couldn't get enough information from what the lab workers said. I was really astounded, it was in Japan; conveniently where we were headed. We would be able to find out more about ourselves; I didn't know whether to be excited or frightened.

"…We should tell everyone else, maybe that could be our first stop once we go to Japan…before we go to Tokyo." I said. I continued to stare at Chrome; she looked uncomfortable as if she didn't want me to do this. But then she nodded.

By the time the sun fully rose, everyone else was awake. It was time to tell them.

"Guys. Chrome found out something." I spoke up, getting everyone's attention. Gokudera, Yamamoto, and Haru sat around the ashes of wood that was previously the campfire. Chrome remained next to me while Hibari sat away at a distance. They all eagerly stared at me, waiting for me to continue. Everyone was just as curious as I was. I couldn't blame them. Anything right about now made us all antsy, especially since we managed to escape from the death chamber we called Vindice.

"What is it?!" Haru was the first to reply.

"They have files on us." Chrome said, "Files about our personal information in Japan. There's a place called Kokuyo Land and it's in a building there."

I looked at Gokudera; his green eyes were trembling, his hands curled into fists.

"Why did you have to wait until now to tell us?!" He spat out, "What's the matter with you-"

"Gokudera-kun!" I interrupted. I knew he was distressed; we all were, but Chrome didn't deserve to be lashed out at. She went through a lot and she already felt uncomfortable telling this to all of us in the first place. Gokudera looked at me, then retreated to silence; I could tell he was still angry.

"What are in the files? Do you know?" Haru asked.

"I don't know about the files in Kokuyo Land yet, but I found extra files in Iemitsu's office when he wanted to talk to me." Chrome continued, feeling even more uncomfortable, "I got the chance to look at some of them when he left for a little bit."

"You could have used that chance to escape-"

"They would have caught me if I tried escaping." Chrome interrupted Yamamoto. She was right. She wasn't as strong as the older ones so she wouldn't be able to escape on her own and if they caught her escaping there would have been dire consequences for her. They would have hurt her even more.

"These files tell us where each of us came from and our parents. I only had time to skim them."

My face froze; I couldn't believe…so I did have parents. Real parents…All these years we speculated that Haru was the only one who had actual parents that gave her away to Vendicare.

"Parents? So…so that means it's certain we all aren't test tube babies?" Gokudera said; his face was bolstering in shock.

Chrome gave him a short nod, "All of us had them. We came from different places…and different hospitals."

"How were we given away to Vendicare? How did they put bird genes into us?" I asked. Any longer and my eyes were going to fall off from my sockets from how wide open they were. I was surging with excitement and curiosity.

"Right after we were born, our-our parents…" Chrome swallowed; her voice was slowly breaking. Her lips trembled, "….some of our parents gave us away…gave me away…to Vendicare for experiments to be done on us. That's when they gave us those genes."

It was silent between us. I saw how upset Chrome was…we all, in fact, were upset as she was. I saw a tear drip down below her left eye, falling onto the dusty ground. Her own parents willingly gave her away for harsh and illegal experiments to be done on her. Haru placed an arm around Chrome from the side to comfort her. Our own natural, birth parents sold us to a torturous facility to do barbaric experiments on us. It infuriated me; how could they do that? Did they not love us? They probably didn't.

"The files said that your parents escaped to Italy for refuge after they gave birth to you. Vindice took you away." Chrome said to Haru before wiping her tears.

Haru immediately thought about the woman she saw back in Naples Italy with Hibari. …So that was probably her mother. Her face didn't light up; she kept the same straight expression. She didn't know what to feel right now.

"So it is true…that woman I saw might have been my mother…" Haru quietly said; she glanced at Hibari who looked back at her as well.

"…And Gokudera-sama's mother."

Gokudera's attention became tenfold. He was waiting for what Chrome was going to say next.

"She died…she died shortly after he was born. His father gave him away after that."

He slammed his fists on the ground, almost causing me to snap upwards. His fists were clenched so tight that the sides were becoming red. His teeth were gritted, his whole face trembling. His only parent, gave him away and probably for a hefty sum that Vendicare paid him.

"That bastard…" He muttered, barely restraining his anger, "How-how could he…"

I wanted to tell Gokudera anything that would take away from his pained expression, but I was afraid that I could slip up and say something that might come out the wrong way. Plus, that would be too impossible to do now.

"What about us?" Hibari asked, pointing to himself and Yamamoto.

"Hibari-sama, your parents gave you away themselves too." Chrome replied, "and Yamamoto-sama, you were taken away from your father."

"Why? What happened?" Yamamoto asked, more inquisitive than ever.

"They lied to your parents." She vaguely replied, "That's all I know."

The baseball fanatic lowered his head. He, as well, as Haru were confused as ever. His expression was stone cold, highly contrasting to his usual cheerful expression. It was heartbreaking to see. I looked at Hibari who kept his same expression; he was hard to read but I knew deep down he was hurting.

"They must have said I died." Yamamoto shook his head; the malice very clear in his voice. It was so unlike him.

I cleared my throat. My nerves were as high as ever.

"…Did you see anything about me?" I nearly stuttered through that.

Chrome hesitated. Anxiety harbored her.

She shook her head.

"…I didn't. I-I'm sorry."

"That's okay." I quietly said, feeling a pang in my throat.

**~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~**

"I can't believe it." Gokudera fumed, "All they cared about was the compensation they probably got after they gave some of us away."

"I-I'm sorry, Gokudera-kun." I awkwardly placed a comforting hand on his shoulder.

"…You're luckier than the rest of us." Gokudera replied, trying his best to crack a smile.

"How?" I widened my eyes.

"At least you don't know what they did to you or what happened to them. I think it's better not to know…" He continued.

I got what he was saying, but me not knowing just made me more anxious by the minute. I was really curious about my birth parents; I have been for my whole life.

"We should squeeze in a little more sleep." Haru spoke up, sniffling her nose.

"Good idea." Yamamoto said, "Maybe that'll help."

A few minutes later, everyone fell asleep. All except for Gokudera who fidgeted with the ashes from the fireplace. His head lay low, his green eyes focusing on the burnt firewood. I couldn't sleep either; I laid on my side trying to, but I couldn't. I kept thinking about where I was really from, not just me being thrust into the mafia the minute I was brought into Vendicare. What I wanted to know was where and what I was before all of that happened.

"Gokudera-kun…" I spoke up before could think.

Gokudera's eyes widened and he dropped the tree stick he held onto, "Juudaime! You couldn't go to sleep either?"

I shook my head, propping myself on my side. It was silent between the both of us for a little while. Gokudera tried conjuring up his thoughts, something he could say to me, but that didn't work. He was probably waiting for me to say something; the green-eyed male continued to stare at me.

"Do you think I was the only one who was born from a test tube?" I finally asked. Maybe Gokudera would have a clue about this. He was intelligent…maybe he did, "I-I mean they don't have any information on me, so maybe I was…"

"Maybe your information is supposed to be top secret for a good reason."

I paused. Iemitsu did say I was the leader of the Vongola Mafia Family…and that was really important to him to keep a secret. So anything having to do with me was very much kept a secret. I thought about it for a while, it sort of made sense…I guess.

"…Probably." I finally answered, fidgeting with the side of my hair. Was I ever going to tell them about the Mafia? I really wanted to; I never kept anything a secret from my family. Maybe I could just ignore all of this destiny…mafia stuff and it would go away. I slightly shook my head in amusement, like that was going to work. But if I didn't communicate with Iemitsu maybe he could use a bunch of other mutant kids like us for his Vongola family instead of us ourselves. It technically couldn't be forced upon me.

"Don't worry too much about it." Gokudera said, then hesitated and tched, "Now I sound like the baseball idiot…"

He glanced over at Yamamoto who slept across from Haru and Chrome, scowled, and then looked back at me.

"…I'll try not to." I gave him a reassuring smile, guiltiness harboring me. I really wanted to tell him about us secretly being in the Mafia, he was my right hand man. Maybe he would understand that we couldn't tell anyone else…maybe. He was a very devoted person, especially to me. I could easily trust him.

"Gokudera-kun…" I croaked. I cleared my throat, realizing how unclear my voice sounded. Me being nervous all the time was starting to get to me.

"What is it, Juudaime?" His attention all on me again.

I swallowed. I tried opening my mouth but nothing came out. I felt sweat escape the sides of my face, my mouth open the entire time. I must have looked really silly.

"E-eto…" I twiddled my thumbs together, then spoke so fast that whatever sentence I was saying came out in one word, "…we-weshouldwakeveryoneelseup."

Gokudera raised his eyebrow, not understanding a single thing I just said. I nearly slapped myself; of course I couldn't tell him! Aghh I'm so stupid!

"Oh! We should wake everyone else up!" Gokudera said, catching what I just said, "Sorry, you spoke a bit too fast!"

…_a bit too fast…?_

More like really fast. I didn't realize my mouth could move like that. I let out an incredulous laugh, rubbing the back of my head.

**~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~**

"Wake up every one! It's time to wake up!" Gokudera said aloud. I slightly sighed, Gokudera could easily get carried away.

"Hahi! What time is it?!"

"How am I supposed to know?" Gokudera growled, impatience wearing on him. Haru glared at him.

"It's 10:05." Yamamoto said, yawning as he looked at his hand watch.

"Come on Hibari! Wake up! Juudaime said to-"

"If you keep going at that, people will hear us." He coldly said, propping himself up.

"We're in a forest. A huge forest. I doubt there's anyone miles away." Gokudera rolled his eyes.

Haru shuffled through her backpack, she groaned when all she sorted through were just empty wrappers of food. She looked at all the food we ate yesterday; that was all gone too. We were heavy eaters, we couldn't help it. She anxiously ruffled her brunette hair, frustrated.

"Where's all our food?!" She cried.

"We ate everything yesterday." Yamamoto replied. Haru groaned even louder; she couldn't bear her stomach growls.

_Tap! Tap! Tap!_

We all whipped our heads to the source of the noise. I saw Hibari tap both of his metal tonfas against each other to get our attention.

"We're off to Tokyo. We're probably at least 36 hours or so away." He said, "No sleep breaks in between; we have to get there as fast as we can."

"Are we going to Kokuyo Land?" I asked.

"Yes. We can find information on where it is before we head there." He replied.

I nodded. Good thinking again, Tokyo would probably have a lot of resources at their disposal that could help us.

"What about breakfast?" Haru asked.

"We'll get that once we reach the closest town."

Haru nodded, "Okay, good. I'm so hungry."

"Me too." Chrome said.

In just ten minutes, we were getting ready to take off. I ran several feet, jumped up into the air and unfurled my wings. Hibari was last to leave, after me. We made sure everyone made it up safely before we would continue up into the sky. It was straight to Japan for us.

"Gahh!" I cried.

It felt like a spike was jabbed right in my skull. It was happening again. I grimaced in pain before falling back onto the ground. I scraped against several of the trees before landing onto the grass of the clear area we were once in. I curled into a fetal position, clutching my head; I tried my hardest not to scream. I winced as the pounding became more and more intense every passing second.

Everyone else immediately flew back down.

"Tsuna-san!" Haru cried, her hand gently touching my shoulder.

"Is this the same thing that happened before?" Hibari asked kneeling close to me.

I tried to nod, but I couldn't move my head from the pain. All I could do was clutch my head and grimace. I really wanted to say something, but I couldn't. All anyone could do at this moment was to watch me curl up in a ball of pain.

I yelled.

"Juudaime!"

Behind my eyes, bursts of red and orange flooded my sight. I clenched my teeth harder. Lightning fast images shot through my line of sight; the harsh blinking making me curl up into pain more. I could barely make them out. All I saw were blurred buildings, fuzzy landscapes, unrecognizable people, certain words written on paper, scenes in black and white that looked as if they came from an old movie, and weird indescribable hallucinogenic patterns.

"Aghh!" I aggressively flinched when I opened my eyes. My eyesight returned back to normal, my headache was slowly fading away.

"Tsuna…!"

I ignored Yamamoto's call, crawled to the nearest space away from the five of them and hurled. I loudly coughed and barely gagged as I threw up the last bits of vomit. I rapidly breathed in and out, trying to catch my breath. I felt a hand touch my back. I nearly recoiled but calmed down when I realized it was just Haru.

"What's the matter with you herbivore?" I saw Hibari and the others loom over me. His voice was harsh, but very worried.

"I-I don't know…" I cleared my throat, trembling a bit. Haru gave me a few more reassuring pats on the back.

"Do you think we should see a doctor?" Yamamoto asked.

"Yeah that sure is a great idea! They won't be skeptical about us one bit!" Gokudera sarcastically said, "We totally need to let more people know about us!"

"I'm okay now." I replied, almost lying. My headache was still there, but I didn't want them to worry anymore or them to slow down this trip because of me, "It might have been a stomach bug…people get them all the time…"

When Hibari was about to say something, I gave him a pleading look. He sighed in defeat. He always could see perfectly through my lies.

"Let's just go to Japan then." He said, before helping me back up.

**~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~**

Hibari motioned me to go upwards before him. I nodded. I was going to try this again. I gulped before running a few feet, leaping up, unfurling my wings, and then finally flying. I felt a nauseous pain in my stomach from when I threw up, but ignored it; it would go away on its own.

"Are you okay?" Chrome asked, just to make sure.

"Yes." I softly replied, then looked beside me, Haru was on the other side. Yamamoto and Gokudera were beside Haru and Chrome while Hibari flew ahead of us. He knew where he was going so we would follow him.

"Tsuna-san…"

I turned to Haru.

"I've been thinking about my mom and dad, I can't seem to get them out of my mind." She continued, "They probably thought I died all those years ago before seeking refuge italy...so if they saw me again, wouldn't they be happy? I thought they gave me away at first…but that wasn't the case, so they must want to see me…"

I didn't know what to say, but Haru trailed on.

"You see when Hibari and I went to Naples. I had second thoughts about whether that woman was my mother or not, now I really think she is. I really wished I could have talked to her…but-but would she believe me? Would she recognize me as Haru…or does she even know me as Haru…hahi…this is so confusing desu."

"Would…would they accept me if they knew I had wings? Maybe they would, but I can't be so sure."

Gokudera had barely restrained anger; she would never stop talking. I could see the scowl on his face get bigger every minute.

"I think they would accept you; wings or not." I finally replied. Just like how Nana and Fuuta did. I really missed them.

"I hope so." She said.

I wondered how they were doing right at this very moment.

**~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~**

It was past dusk, the sun had already set and we had been flying for what felt like weeks. We stopped a couple of times to get food to eat while we were at flight, or rather stealing some since our Euros wouldn't work in the other countries we bypassed. I looked below and saw what looked to be like hundreds of lights slightly blocked from the clouds we were up above.

"Oh my goodness…" I heard myself say.

"We're here." Hibari said.

The lower we flew, the more the lights came into view. Lights came out from hundreds of buildings, some tall enough to be skyscrapers. This was so exciting yet overwhelming at the same time. I concentrated my eyesight, I saw tons and tons of people below. I noticed a completely lit up building that reminded me of the Eifel tower. Tokyo looked like it rested against the ocean, bordering against the large body of water.

"Woahhh! Tokyo looks so amazing!" Haru exclaimed, "There's so much people!"

"Impossibly too much." Hibari said as he glared down the ground. Yup, he hated crowds. Strange how he was the one who suggested we go to Tokyo. Good thing was that we could easily blend in with the crowd, but the bad part was that anybody could be out to get us. Haru was too busy marveling at the sights below.

"Come on! Come on! Let's go down!" Haru said, pulling on my sleeve, "Ahh do we have any money left? We could get something good to eat…like-like- ramen made from scratch! I've always wanted to try fresh ramen…not those cheap Maruchan cups we would eat! Or we could go shopping-"

"We do…maybe we could change our euros into whatever currency they have here." I replied.

"Yen." Gokudera replied, "Or find a bank machine and get more money from our card."

"We'll get something quick to eat, then we'll look for Kokuyo Land. That's what we need to do first." Hibari said. Lucky we had him here to screw our heads in tight. Haru often got sidetracked even by the least excitable things. Haru nodded, her expression changing to a glum one. She really liked Japan; from what she saw on TV and the internet, she's always wanted to visit the place and go sightseeing. To her dismay, Kokuyo Land would have to come first.

We flew down closer to a secluded alley so people wouldn't see us. We all quickly folded in our wings before dropping down to the ground.

"Itei!" I winced, my legs felt so rubbery. We were flying for hours straight; I hated when this happened.

"Hey what's that sound?" Yamamoto asked.

He listened by cupping a hand around his ears.

"Music…" Chrome said.

"Hahi! There must be a concert or…or a performance!" Haru gleamed, trying to find the source of noise. We landed behind a building, onto an alleyway. I looked around, trying to figure out exactly where in Tokyo we were; I saw a street sign kind of far from us. I squinted when I saw Japanese letters on it and groaned in frustration.

"Arghh we can't even read Japanese!" I panicked placing my hands on both sides of my cheeks.

"I read and understand some." Gokudera said. Lucky for us, he did. Gokudera was very studious, especially when Iemitsu tried to teach us. He could easily remember things. With me, I only knew slight phrases…and that wasn't going to get me anywhere.

"There's English at the bottom." Hibari nudged me. I squinted even more if that was possible, he was right.

"…Yasukuni Dori…" I slowly read; that was a street.

"Let's head there…see if we can find a map of the city." Gokudera said.

We all made sure our wings were completely out of sight before exciting the alley we were in. I wowed once I saw all the intense lights, all so colorful, some red, some blue, some yellow, and white. There were posters lit up in lighting everywhere, with more Japanese characters. It had to be one of the most amazing things I've ever seen. There wasn't a building without a lit up poster. The music became louder. I could see Haru absently dancing to it.

Hibari kept a frown etched on his features as we saw crowds of people going opposite and our way. He was probably seething in anger. The streets were crowded with people as well. Cars could barely pass them. It was very busy and loud and it was just the nighttime. Gokudera took note of each of the signs, trying his best to understand each.

Compared to the mix of Italian and English we would see back at our old home…it was all Japanese with an occasional mix of English. I had no idea how we were going to get around. I hope Gokudera-kun could guide us…or someone could find a map or…a dictionary. I looked back and saw Chrome clutch onto Haru's arm; she wasn't very comfortable with the noisy crowds either.

I inhaled as I smelled food coming in from the restaurants beside us. I nearly grinned once I saw a burger king restaurant, the last fast food restaurant we went to back in Italy. My stomach grumbled. Gokudera and I wowed in unison when we saw a train ride on a bridge above us. It must have been part of a subway…I had to admit, this city was really neat.

"Look guys, look!" Haru pointed ahead of us.

"Oh my god…" Yamamoto said.

There was a huge stadium-like building far from us…but not far enough for us to hear the very same music we heard. There were huge overhead lights surrounding it, more lights streamed across the many seats that the stadium had. A group of people, which were hard to see, were at the center of the loud audience. They looked like the performance. Surrounding them, hundreds of people sat on the bleachers. We heard a loud chorus of cheers.

"Come on, let's go!" The brown haired girl beamed, "Please, please, please! I've never seen a concert up close ever!"

Haru nudged the end of my sleeve, trying to pull me forward.

"Hi-Hibari-san…can we…?" I looked at Hibari who seemed more irritated by the minute. He was going to get pissed at us for asking such a question in the first place. I felt Chrome nudge Hibari's sleeve. Her large purple eyes gleaming at him.

"Please, Hibari-sama?" The quieter girl said, a small smile etched in her features.

She didn't like crowds as much either, but she was curious about such an event like that. Hibari almost rolled his eyes; he glared at the stadium, his eyes narrowing at the noisy commotion. He hesitated, then sighed.

"Fine." He curtly said.

"Yesss!" Haru jumped while pumping one fist into the air.

Haru grabbed Chrome by the hand and they both ran across the sidewalk towards the stadium. It was hard to catch up to them. I nearly hit an oncoming car as they suddenly turned left to reach the place.

"Wait up guys!" I ran after them.

Since the stadium was pretty dark outside, we managed to sneak in without having to pay for some tickets or something. The music was unbelievable loud, so loud that I could barely hear my voice. I had to yell at the top of my lungs for anyone to hear me. Haru went down a flight of stairs, so we could get a closer look, the rest of us followed her, trying our best to keep up since we was so quick.

Once we were close enough, we stood at the edge of the stairs, not bothering to sit in any of the bleachers. We would probably be out quick if we sensed any trouble. Behind the stage there was a large- no, huge monitor. It was gigantic; colorful designs and effects were showered on it.

"What band is this?" We saw a group of singers on the stage, singing their song…all in Japanese.

I saw Haru tiptoe, trying to get a better picture of her surroundings.

"Eto…" She began, then lit up, once she figured out, "It's Arashi! They're really, really popular! We're so lucky we got here!"

I looked at Haru and Chrome who were in awe as the band continued to play. Hibari crossed his arms and impatiently tapped his foot onto the ground; he wanted this to be over quick. Haru clapped her hands in unison matching her claps to the drumbeats from the band; Chrome followed her and did the same. It was great to see them happy, after the sudden news of our families that came about.

The lights in the stadium blinked about, the audience clapped and cheered louder even if that was possible.

I was quite enamored with the glowy sticks that people rocked back and forth with in the bleachers. Those looked really cool.

After the concert came to end, much to Haru's dismay, the crowds began leaving their bleacher seats. We each held onto each other so we wouldn't lose anyone. Right after the crowds in stadium diluted we looked for somewhere we could sleep the night at.

"That was amazing desu! That had to be one of the most exciting things I've ever seen!"

"We should visit these concerts more often." Yamamoto said, agreeing with Haru.

"Did you like it Gokudera-kun?" I asked.

The right-hand man shrugged, "I-It was okay…I guess. Not the type of music I would listen to."

"I can't believe how many people there were…all crowded into one place. Everyone's so loud and energetic." Haru said; back at our home it was quiet, very quiet compared to here. There was constantly noise all around us, crowds of people talking, the business a lot of stores around us got, the traffic that congested the busy streets, it was all very hectic.

"Thank goodness that concert ended soon enough." Hibari said, keeping a brisk pace ahead of us, "I thought my ears were going to fall off."

"Oh come on Hibari-san! You'll get used it!"

"…I don't think he will." I whispered to Haru. Hibari always hated crowds, and he always will. That was one thing that never changed about him.

"We're here to find out where Kokuyo land is. This isn't supposed to be a pleasure trip." Hibari flatly said. Haru sighed in an exaggerated manner, slumping her arms beside her. Hibari-san was such a killjoy sometimes.

"and how exactly are we going to do that?" Gokudera asked. We haven't come up with a specific plan yet…or maybe Hibari managed to conjure one up.

"Wait until tomorrow and I'll tell you." He replied.

**~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~**

We woke up the next morning, the sun was getting ready to rise. We had a habit of doing that. The six of managed to find trees we could blend ourselves into. There weren't too common in Tokyo, considering that this place was 90% city, but we found a few.

I examined the place some more hiding behind the leaves of the tree I was in; I saw smaller crowds of people walking along with the hustle and bustle of the city. They were probably getting ready for a long day of work. Some others were setting up their food carts, while other restaurants started to open. I saw a few swerve by with bicycles, narrowly avoiding the traffic.

I smelled something very, very good. I nearly drooled on my sweatshirt when I saw someone deep frying a few snacks into a large vat of oil which stood next to an assortment of food. Behind him there was a sign that probably listed whatever food he was serving.

"…it smells so good!" I whispered.

That was our cue to find an atm machine to grab Yen so we could buy some food. We slipped down out of the trees casually, making sure no one looked before we did so. We wandered out onto the sidewalks, trying our best to blend in with everyone else. That probably didn't work since the six of us were tattered and dirty from what happened to us previously.

"Woahh that's the biggest food cart I've seen!" Yamamoto exclaimed. I turned to the direction Yamamoto was looking at and I saw a colossal cart. Yellow, omelet looking things with a red sausage doused on them decorated the top of the cart.

"Can we get some?" I asked.

Hibari fished in his pocket for the card and handed it to Gokudera, he pointed to an ATM machine that wasn't too far from us. It was latched onto a building.

"I'll be right back." Gokudera said, "This shouldn't be any problem."

Hopefully…the atm was probably full of Japanese. In a few minutes Gokudera brought back the card to Hibari, in his other hand he held a stack of paper money.

"How much did you get?" I closely examined the money, flipping through the stacks he got.

"5000 yen." He replied.

"EHHHH?!" I screamed; a few passerbys gave me weird looks. I immediately covered my mouth. That was so much money!

"That's only 35 Euros." He replied, a carefree grin on his face, amused by my surprised look.

"Oh…" I said, feeling quite stupid for freaking out.

"Well, let's go get our food!" Haru said, she then pointed to the omelet cart, "I want to try those!"

She ran over to the guy who sold those omelets. She pointed to one of them, not knowing whether to speak in English or not. She didn't know if the guy would understand English. In a few minutes the rest of us got food. Me, Gokudera, and Yamamoto bought some of the deep fried snacks from the other cart while the others got the weird looking omelet things.

I bit into it; it looked like a corndog, but with sausage inside of it. I nodded, savoring each bite.

After we finished our meal, a guy in a dark green uniform caught my eyes. I could barely see him because the hat he wore blocked half of his face. He sat next to another food cart which was not too far from us.I immediately shivered when he glanced at me. I immediately turned around, trying not to make eye contact.

I nudged Hibari's arm.

"I think we should go." I whispered to him.

We both turned around, him to see what I was talking about. We saw two other guys behind the guy with the black suit; they wore navy green suits, their faces also hidden behind their hats. They stood up from their sitting positions and walked towards us. Everyone else soon noticed; we immediately walked at a fast pace. I kept looking back, they were walking faster too.

Hibari tried scanning for escape routes or crowds…crowds of people we could diverge into. We quickened our pace even more. I turned around and saw even more of those guys; they were catching up to us.

That was our cue to run.

**~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~**

…**and this one came out longer than expected…good god. I hope it didn't seem like I rushed on some parts, I felt like some of it went to quick while some other parts went too slow. **


	13. Chapter 13

"Hurry!" I cried, I kept turning my head back, only to see them catching up even more to us.

These men in uniforms were Mukuro's. The fact that they knew where we were was probably because of the tracking chip in my arm; I nearly cursed out loud. When we thought we could get far away enough….

We ran through several blocks, narrowly avoiding the traffic and the people that were walking opposite our way.

"This way!" Haru said. She pointed to building that looked like a ticket gate. Large, red kanji letters decorated the ceiling with the word zoo written in red next to it. Below the ceiling was a sign fully written in Kanji with a picture of a panda's head. We saw a large crowd of people go through the multiple entrances of the building.

Without question we followed Haru because of the crowd; we could blend in there much better and loose those frightening men. We ran closer and closer to the entrance, squeezing our way through all the people who were making their way through the doors.

We were surrounded by hordes of people, some of them even looking like tourists. Thank goodness, we would blend in here easily. We were squeezed in between everyone else and ourselves because the crowd wouldn't allow us to spread. I glanced at the sign again.

"Is this a zoo…?" I asked.

"Ueno zoo." Gokudera replied, able to read the Japanese characters.

I peeped over a man's shoulder and quickly scanned. Those men were still looking for us. However, they were completely surrounded by the crowds, making it a lot harder for them to look. I let out a relieved sigh until I saw a man who looked like some sort of ticket usher.

"Bring your tickets here!" He said in Japanese.

"What did he say?" Yamamoto asked, pressed against Gokudera. Even he looked uncomfortable in this crowded mess.

"Tickets…he wants tickets." Gokudera replied, realizing we obviously didn't have tickets for the zoo, "Shit…what do we do?"

"Blend in even more so he won't see us." Hibari replied, his anger surfacing. He wanted to swipe all these people away with his tonfas so bad. I bet he was slowly beginning to hate this city the more we were here. The six of us crouched down, trying our best to stay out of sight from the ticket usher.

Nobody else seemed to notice our funny positions since there were so many people here in the first place.

"Tickets here, please!" The usher repeated in Japanese, waving a stack of tickets he already collected. My heart pounded louder and louder the closer we came to him. I grimaced the entire time, almost expecting him to catch us sneaking in.

A family unintentionally kept us out of sight as we whisked through the entrance. The ticket guy didn't even see us. We walked further away from the entrance, just in case.

"Yesss!" I clasped my fists together. My heart rate went up again, I was so relieved.

The six of us looked back as we slowly walked further, the crowds making us do that. We couldn't just stay still. We saw the uniformed men at the entrance.

"If you don't have a ticket, you can't come through here." The usher spoke, in Japanese, blocking the entrance to keep them from coming.

One of the men let out an angry snarl and motioned for the others to back away with him to leave. I put a hand over my chest and let out a loud breath. Thank god…thank god so much. We turned back to the front of us and went over to a secluded side, getting away from the crowds.

"Wow, a real zoo…" Haru said, she looked ahead of us and saw different cages and habitats, each with different types of animals. I turned to my right and saw a modeled rock with modeled pandas, the rock held a sign that wrote "Ueno Zoo". A display of different colored flowers stood behind it.

"What do we do now?" I asked.

"Let's go further in and stay for a while just in case they decide to come back."

We walked further into the zoo, Chrome's face lit up and she gasped in amazement when she saw a panda surrounded by a natural looking habitat. The animal lazily leaned against a stack of logs. A fence surrounded the animal, keeping it from getting out. High leaves of grass surrounded the panda with bamboo sticks; behind it was a small shack.

"Wow!" She said, marveling at the sight. We've never seen animals up this close before so this was something really fascinating for us.

"Chrome-chan, look! There's another one!" Haru leaned against the fence and saw another Panda lying on its back behind the shack. It fidgeted with a plush looking toy, throwing it around its black paws.

Next to the pandas was a larger exhibit, surrounded by large rocks. Bright green bushes decorated the rocks in a manmade fashion. With curiosity I went closer to it. I nearly screamed when I saw an elephant walk across the exhibit, carrying hay around its trunk. The animal was huge, nearly towering over the rocks that surrounded it.

The elephant ate the hay by sticking the trunk in its mouth. It extended its trunk and made the loudest trumpeting sound I've ever heard.

"Hieee!" I immediately backed away from the fence. I got few weird stares from several people close to me who were looking at the elephant as well.

"It's not going to attack you."

I jumped up when I realized Hibari was right next to me. The taller male shook his head at my jitteriness. I had to stop doing that, but he easily scared me with such quiet footsteps. Hibari crossed his arms as he examined the large animal.

"I know that Hibari-san…" I replied, then paused. I looked at the small space...or at least small for the elephant…that it was encased in. The fences didn't help either. It felt as if the animal was trapped inside or kept captive with nowhere to go. It was kind of depressing to think about, "Do you think these animals like being kept in a place like this?"

Hibari faced me, "Of course not."

I wasn't surprised he gave such a quick reply to my question.

"It's nauseating being trapped in such a small space. For what…" He hesitated, furrowing his brows, "…probably for the rest of their time living."

I bit my bottom lip as I looked at the elephant which roamed around its habitat. Hibari was right, this was upsetting to look at when you thought of it that way. The animal only had such a small space with so much to do, it seemed like a life like that would get boring after a while.

It's just like when we were in small cages at Vendicare, in a small enclosed space with barely much to do at all. That ruined my taste of this zoo and every other zoo…

**~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~**

"Oh man, look at that hippo!" Gokudera exclaimed, standing against another fence of another habitat not too far from us. Yamamoto and Haru were at either side of him. The stumpy animal opened its mouth out revealing six large stained sets of teeth and an unappealing inside.

"That's kind of gross too look at." Haru said turning her head away to the side.

"Wow, I've never heard of this animal!" Yamamoto said, he went over to habitat next to the hippos. I caught up to Yamamoto to see what exactly he was looking at. A large grey bird-like animal with a massive beak sat on a bed of its nest.

"What is that?" I gasped, my eyes widened. That was the strangest animal I've seen so far in Ueno.

Yamamoto read a sign that was placed on the fence. Below the kanji, there were smaller characters written in English.

"Balae…niceps…." He slowly read, "Strange."

It was weird. Ever since what Hibari said, I was slowly growing a distaste for the zoo. I kept comparing the animals' captivity to our captivity back at Vendicare. Even though the setting was completely different, ours being a depressing dimmed room with cages stacked upon each other, and theirs being a beautiful zoo with habitats made as natural as possible, it was all very similar. Creatures being kept inside small living conditions against their will. Maybe the animals were happy…maybe they weren't, who knows; it just made me really uncomfortable though.

"Those birds are so cute…" Chrome said; she and Haru were at another exhibit this time. I glanced over at their direction. There were exquisite looking trees, with pink cherry blossom flowers blooming on them. On those trees, several tiny yellow birds hung on the branches, their tiny wings flapping.

"Pocket size birds." Haru joked, as I joined them, "You could easily fit one into your dress shirt pocket, Hibari-san."

"Probably." He replied, before walking off to look at another exhibit.

I stared at those birds for a little while before snapping out of it. Kokuyo Land! We're here to find Kokuyo! I anxiously rubbed my head, almost forgetting. I nearly bit my tongue when I felt a tiny headache come on.

I looked around saw Gokudera, Yamamoto, Haru, and Chrome enjoying themselves like the regular people here. They were excitingly pointing at the different habitats and animals, even more excited than the regular person. Gokudera described each of the animals to the other three, while they took in the sights. It was a rare sight to see, but we knew it couldn't last forever.

"Hibari-san…" I quickly walked over to him.

"Are we ready to leave?" He asked, impatiently looking at the others who were absorbed at the sights. He read my mind.

"Well…I am." I replied, "We need to get to Kokuyo soon."

"You don't look so well." He said. He noticed my slumped position and my flushed face. Another headache was coming on and my stomach felt all queasy. I looked around the zoo once more and replied.

"I'm fine, I just think we need to leave." I said without thinking. Besides the fact that we needed to go to Kokuyo Land, my sudden urge to leave the zoo was strange. I went over to the others and told them that we needed to go.

"Sorry Juudaime, I think we got carried away around here!" Gokudera profusely apologized.

"N-no worries…" I replied waving my hands about.

"Let's go through that exit." Hibari pointed to an empty and roped off path that was clearly off limits for regular visitors. We went through there anyways, anything to get out of here quickly. We managed to leave without me throwing up or curling into a ball of painful terror.

**~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~**

"You know what I like about this place?" Yamamoto said, biting into a stick that held three ball shaped snacks, a sauce was drizzled among it. It was called Takoyaki. He carried a paper container which held another one of those Takoyaki balls, "Nobody gives us a second look. There's so many strange things in Tokyo, we blend in easily."

"That's true." Gokudera agreed, biting into another Takoyaki stick.

We all technically were of Japanese descent; I mean we looked it. It helped that Iemitsu gave us our Japanese names when he recused us from Vendicare, instead of us being called "Subject 27" or "Subject 18". I guess that helped us some when blending in; only problem was the five us of didn't understand 95% of Japanese.

I looked around us, most of the people looked normal. Among some of them, some people were dressed in funny costumes and nobody gave them a second glance. The six of stood among a sidewalk, sneaking in something to eat before we would be off for Kokuyo. Before that, Hibari grabbed a map of the city, just in case we would get lost.

"Dango please!" Haru said pointing to the ball shaped snacks on the stick. She stood in front of another vendor we came across. There was a sign with the word 'Dango' written on it below the sign a bunch of dumpling like snacks were assorted behind a glass case.

Haru came back holding a stick of three Dango balls.

"What are those exactly?" I asked, eyeing the tiny snack.

"I think it's a kind of sweet dumpling." She replied examining the snack as she brought the stick close to her eye. She bit into one of them, "Hahi it's very good!"

I saw Hibari scanning the map, getting frustrated as he realized that every single bit of it was in Japanese, except for the numbers. Not a single English word was on it. Gokudera peered at the map.

"Man all the letters are too small. Who writes these things-" Gokudera said, then his eyes widened, "Hey! There's a library not too far from here! Maybe we can find information there!"

"Where?" Hibari said, scanning the map; his irises darted back and forth as he was glued onto the paper.

"Right there, just several blocks away." He replied, pointing to a section of the map, "Tokyo Metropolitan Central Library."

I tiptoed to where Hibari was holding the map close, my head reaching above his shoulders. Gahh I was so short! I saw Gokudera point to an icon of building on the map. Next to it had more Kanji letters…why couldn't Hibari get a map in English?

"It must have comp-"

I stopped.

My eyes probably looked like they were bulging out of my sockets.

"Tsuna, are you alright?" Yamamoto asked, "Are you having another headache?"

"Chocolate chip cookies!" I exclaimed. Everyone probably thought I finally lost it. I inhaled the familiar smell as I saw a store that sold desserts. Through the windows, I could see a glass display with different kinds of confections, one of them that included freshly baked cookies. The strong aroma easily came out of the entrance.

I was immediately reminded of Nana's cookies that were made right from scratch. I had to have some right now!

"I must have some cookies!"

Hibari gave me an 'Are you serious?' look. I shrugged before going into the store to grab some. After grabbing six cookies, I tried one before giving the rest to everyone else, Hibari not wanting any. He had a strong dislike for sweet, sugary confections as he called them. They tasted really, really good…

…but not as good as Nana's cookies.

**~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~**

I turned my head back and forth, looking at all the different buildings that surrounded us. On our way, I saw embassies from a couple other countries like Austria and Argentina. There was even a place called the international school; perfect for a bunch of "tourists" like us. Gokudera glanced at the map, double checking to see that we haven't passed the library yet.

"So much walking desu…" Haru said, "It's a lot farther than I thought."

"We're actually here." Gokudera said, pointing to a white building that stood at the corner of a field of grass. The six of us looked up and saw the giant library; there weren't any particular signs that labeled it. Dozens of windows covered the side of it, there were at least five floors to this place. The entrance was made of several glass windows, allowing us to see the inside. Much smaller doors led to the inside of the building.

It wasn't a fancy library, in fact it looked quite plain compared to the other places we've been to so far in Tokyo.

I was the first to get to the entrance; I pulled on one of the doors. It wouldn't move.

"What the-"

"You push it Tsuna-san!" Haru said, amused.

"…sorry." I pushed the door, it easily opened.

Once I went inside, I felt a thump in my head. I narrowed my eyes and winced from the sudden feeling. I shook my head, ignoring it. I couldn't get distracted.

"So what are we going to do? Are we going to look for books or…?" Gokudera paused, waiting for someone to take over.

"We can use the computers over there." I replied. I pointed to several long desks with chairs on either side. A computer occupied each chair. On the right, there were shelves containing regular books. It was nice and cool inside and lit well. I saw a sparse amount of other people sitting across the computer tables, doing whatever they had to do. Some sat on other tables, reading books or studying.

I had to say, the library had a comforting atmosphere.

"Can I help you six?"

We briskly turned around, looking really paranoid. A woman behind desk counter, next to the book area, spoke to us in Japanese. I immediately tensed up since I was the one closest to the desk. I had to say something.

"Umm..um…" I began, hoping to god she spoke English, "I can't speak Japanese…"

"Ohhh! You must be tourists, right?" She said, this time speaking in English. My smile grew wide, thankful Gokudera didn't have to translate for me.

"…Yes." I replied, sounding feeble.

"What do you need help with?" She asked.

"The computers, c-can we use one of them?" I tried sounding as solid and professional as I could, but that proved to be a failure. I still sounded nervous as ever.

"Yes, but you have to sign in." She pushed a paper towards us. I looked closer and saw a list of other names written in column form, some written in Japanese, some written in English. I hesitated for a moment before signing 'Fuuta' on the log. It was probably strange I didn't put a last name…because I didn't have one. Plus there was no way in hell I would put my real name in, I had to be cautious at every moment. That's what Iemitsu taught us…

"Thank you." She said.

I nodded and gave her smile before we went off to the bank of computers. We knew how to use computers fine, we had one back at home. Hibari pulled up a chair in front of one of them while I did the same so I could see closer. Yamamoto and Gokudera leaned in, so did Haru and Chrome.

"You guys are crowding." Hibari waved his hand, motioning for them to back off.

"We can't see that well." Gokudera replied.

Next to the computer, there were instructions on how to surf the internet. We've used the internet several times with our extremely slow connection. This wouldn't be that hard. Hibari clicked on a "E" icon, which was internet explorer. The Google homepage popped up.

He typed in "Kokuyo Land" on the search box.

_3 results._

"Click on the first one." Gokudera said, pointing to the link that looked the most relevant.

_Kokuyo Land. Kokuyo Land is an abandoned amusement park in Japan. Many different facilities used to be located in this place, but it's now vacant without any workers or tourists. _

That was the description for the first result.

"That doesn't help." Hibari muttered.

"Wait, I thought there was a place where files were located…how come they say it's abandoned?" I asked, looking at Chrome who sat the desk behind us with Yamamoto and Haru.

"It's top secret. Very few people know about these files." She replied. I nodded my head; that made more sense.

Hibari looked at the next result.

_Kokuyo Land amusement Park. Located in Japan._

With curiosity, he clicked on that link. Several pictures of the place showed up. Most of them were buildings that looked run-down, some of them having cracked walls and shattered windows. It looked like a heavy coating of dust occupied the buildings. What caught our attention the most was a large building, mostly windows that were cracked through. Bushes surrounded it with long steps leading to the entrance. In front of it had a sign with several banners that were half torn.

Hibari scrolled down further.

He saw pictures of the same building; it looked squeaky clean. None of the windows were cracked, the area around it looked clear and devoid of any clutter. Several people were going in and out of it. Those must have been older pictures.

"From the looks of it, this place must have been abandoned long before the internet became popular or else there would be tons of search results." Gokudera said.

"Nobody knows that Vendicare is still using the place to keep documents though." I replied.

Hibari backed out of that result and went onto the third and final one.

"Here it is." He said.

Kokuyo Land. Abandoned Amusement Park. Located in Namimori, Japan.

"Namimori!" I exclaimed, "We found it!"

Haru, Chrome, and Yamamoto snapped out of their reveries, as they were previously sitting on a desk at the back of us. A couple of people close politely hushed us. I grimaced at how loud I was and whispered a sorry to them.

"Where's Namimori though?" Gokudera asked.

Hibari clicked on google maps and typed in directions on how to get from Tokyo to Namimori. The computer froze for a few seconds before a blue screen with white font came about.

"Ehh?" I exclaimed.

"You think their computers would be much better than this." Gokudera tched.

Hibari heard a few steps and motioned us to look. There was a burly looking man, hidden behind uniform, who just came inside the library a few seconds ago. It looked he started walking towards us in a controlled and quick pace. I immediately stiffened, my heartrate beating a hundred times per second.

"Let's go." He muttered, only moving a corner of his lips.

We immediately got out of our seats, leaving the computer on it's blue screen, and quickly walked towards an exit that was opposite the entrance. We were almost expecting several of those green uniformed men to chase us, but there was no one in sight.

I looked up, the sun was close to setting. It was starting to get awfully dark.

**~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~**

"Can we take a subway back to Yasukuni Dori?" Haru asked, pointing to a sign that read 'Tokyo Metro Hiroo Station'.

It was getting late and we did walk pretty far. Plus we were tired from all that walking and there were several trees that we used over there to get some sleep the other night.

"How much does it cost? That's the problem." Hibari said.

"360 yen for children, 710 yen for adults." Haru replied, reading a sign that stood in front of a set of steps that led underground to the subway entrance.

"That's not bad, but we need more money just in case." Gokudera said. He swiped the ATM card from Hibari and went over to an ATM machine to collect more yen. I count through the money and nodded in approval.

"That looks like enough."

I looked down the steps that would lead to the subway. We've obviously never went to one or used one before and from what I saw it looked quite frightening. The steps led downstairs to somewhere completely dark, an underground subway. Hibari went ahead of us. I looked up as the ground ahead of us became higher and higher as we went further down the stairs.

We reached the end of the steps and saw a clearly lit hall; this must have been the ticket gate and entrance. We brought a total of six tickets, 710 yen each before pushing our way through the tiny gates that let us enter the subway.

"Which way do we go?" Yamamoto asked.

"Eto…" I began, looking around the place. We looked like a bunch of lost kids…we were a bunch of lost kids.

"The train station is that way." Gokudera said, he point to a sign that hung above us. There were arrows indicating which way each part of the station was.

Once we were inside we saw a long…and I mean long corridor with two large train tracks in the ground lined against it. It must have looked like it went on forever. There weren't much people, just a few scattered here and there, waiting for the train to come.

"Hahi, there's a map here!" Haru said; she looked a poster that hung against the wall opposite the train tracks.

"That must be that map of the whole metro." I added, "Where is Yasukuni Dori…?"

"The transit is Ichigaya station." Gokudera replied, "So that's what we're looking for."

The map was written in English…or rather Romaji letters instead of Japanese characters. That made things a whole lot easier. After much searching, we found it.

"Right there." He continued.

All we had to do was to wait for the train. The six of us stood across the edge of the corridor, making sure to stay behind the white line that stood in front of the area that went deep into the tracks. I grimaced as each passing minute went by; the train still wasn't coming. What if one of Vendice's men found us like they did this morning? What if they were following us right now?

"This is taking a long time…." Haru said, leaning her head forward to peer at the subway tunnel. There was still no sign of a train.

"Do you think we should just walk instead-"

"Do you guys hear that?" Yamamoto said; he was closer to the tunnel.

"What?" I asked, walking in his direction.

"I hear people…coming from there." He pointed at the dark tunnel.

I raised my eyebrow. That was strange. I leaned forward to see what Yamamoto was talking about. I did hear several voices, but barely.

"Are those workers?" I asked.

"I don't think so." He replied.

I glanced further into the darkness and concentrated.

I peered into the blackness. Now that I concentrated, I could hear voices too. I widened my eyes and saw a flickering light come from around a bend in the tunnel.

"The train doesn't look like it's going to come anytime soon, maybe we could check it out." He said, a grin on his face. My jaw nearly dropped at his easygoing attitude towards that. How did that not scare him off? A dark mysterious corridor with nothing much but a flickering light, coming from an area deep inside there...that put me off more than anything else.

"Yamamoto…" I pleaded.

"What's wrong Juudaime?" I saw Gokudera and the others catch up to us.

"There might be people inside the tunnel. Yamamoto wants to check it out." I said. Gokudera peered through the dark tunnel and heard the noises and saw the flickering light as well.

"You really are strange, baseball idiot." Gokudera scoffed, pushing back from the tunnel, then he looked at me, "Maybe we should check it out though…"

I let out an incredulous expression. I thought we were supposed to stay away from anything that might look strange.

"Those creepy men might find us again if we stay here long enough…" Chrome said.

"Let's go then." Hibari said. Now I was really surprised…even Hibari wanted to. Maybe it would be better than staying out in the open…

Before we slid off onto the tracks, we made sure nobody else was looking. That would be really bad, if someone saw a bunch of crazed teenagers go below onto a dangerous subway track. Someone would definitely call authorities or something; that scared me.

We made our way further into the tunnel.

**~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~**

We kept ourselves as close to the wall of the tunnel as we could. If a train were to come we wouldn't want to get hit by it. It was pitch black except for the occasional light that loomed ahead of us. They were very dim so it was hard to see.

I felt a rumbling sensation below my feet. I could see my legs vibrate. I looked back up and saw the pitch darkness, but the vibration became more apparent.

"Guys I think a train is coming." I spoke up.

"Everyone squeeze against the wall." Hibari said.

We immediately pushed our backs against the wall, as far as we could from the tracks. I nearly grimaced as I felt a damp sensation on the wall. A few seconds later we saw two bright lights emerge from the tunnel.

The rumbling became louder and louder as we saw a train rush closer to us. We pressed back even further. The train made a squeaky sound against the tracks as it rushed past us; I kept my arm shoved against Chrome so we wouldn't be pulled off her feet from the pressure.

We watched the train leave towards the lit metro hallway we were once in.

"…I thought we were going to be hit for a second." I said, heartbeat still rapid. I kept my eyes on the train; it was a lot bigger than I imagined. It nearly covered the whole tunnel itself.

We walked forward, getting closer and closer to the lit bend of the tunnel. We were alert, just in case there would be any trouble near.

"Oh my god…" Gokudera's voice was barely audible. He peeked in front of the lit area. The light reflecting on his face. The rest of us went inside as well.

There was a city…a small one, but it still looked like one nonetheless. It was like an underground city, almost hidden in Tokyo's subway system. We saw groups of people together in a large concrete cavern with stalactites marking its high ceiling.

The people or the habitants of this place looked unwashed and rough, matching the environment. Most of them looked to be natives of Japan themselves, but without a legitimate home.

Several of them stared at us as we made our entrance through the place. We all felt uncomfortable under their calculating stares, but who could blame them…they've never seen us before. They were probably only familiar with everyone else who normally stayed here.

"Food? Do you have food?" One of them spoke in English. She was a girl who looked to be around Chrome's age. She had to be wearing at least five layers of clothing; her face was dirtied and her cheeks looked sunken in.

I saw Haru immediately fish for something in her back pack. She pulled out something covered in paper wrap, probably one of the street foods we ate earlier this morning. She handed it to the girl.

"It's not much but I hope its okay…" She replied. The girl extended her arms which were stick thin, she slowly grabbed the paper wrap from Haru.

She sniffed it, then opened the wrapper, finding two Takoyaki sticks inside of it. She bowed her head before muttering thank you in Japanese. She turned her back to us and started eating.

The "cavern city" had gallon oil drums scattered among the place; the people used those to make fires to make the cold area warm. The fires were the only thing that helped light up the place. This was completely whole new world from what we saw at the top. I knew for a fact these people were either homeless or runaways with nowhere else to go. We even saw a handful of kids our age, some of them who looked like they didn't even come from Japan. We fit in just perfectly.

I just now realized my headache was constant throughout the day and it was slowly becoming worse. All I wanted now, was to get some rest.

Maybe this was a better place to stay for the night rather than the trees.

"There's a place over there." The girl said, reading my mind.

Among the areas that were taken by the groups of people; there was a narrow concrete ledge built into a wall; it must have been hundreds of feet long. Other groups were either sleeping on it or using blankets or cardboard boxes to mark their section. There was a section that was unoccupied; that was where the girl pointed.

I saw Hibari walked towards the area, the rest of trying to catch up with him. It obviously wasn't as nice as the surface, but it was warm and safer. We went onto the ledge and kept close.

"Are you guys going to sleep?" I asked.

"…I am." Haru yawned. The brown haired girl laid on her side, using her backpack as a pillow, "Goodnight everyone."

"Goodnight Haru." I replied.

Chrome decided she would sleep as well too; Haru scooted a bit to the back so Chrome could have a bit of headspace on her backpack. They slept next to each other. In a matter of minutes, Gokudera and Yamamoto felt groggy and decided they would rest too. It was just me and Hibari; the both of us leaned against the wall of the ledge.

I placed my head between my lap; I rubbed at my head trying to alleviate my headache. It wouldn't go away…how I wished it would.

"Are you alright?" The raven haired male noticed this.

I immediately faced Hibari, my fingers still at both sides of my head, "…My head hurts."

"Go to sleep then; I'll keep watch."

I nodded my head. My dame moment was coming back.

"Goodnight Hibari-san." I muttered, before laying on my side drifting off to sleep. Even though my eyes were still closed and the grogginess was getting to me, I could feel Hibari slide my backpack off my back and use it to prop my head up as a pillow.

**~ Tsunayoshi~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~**

"Nnngh…"

I slowly opened my eyes and woke up on a large bed; I was under a thick bed sheet. I pushed the blanket off of me and slipped out of the bed.

…where was I?

I aggressively rubbed my eyes and shook my head to rub the sleepiness off of me. I was inside a small bedroom. Aside from the bed there was a dresser, bookshelf, and lamp post, everything a normal bedroom would have. I walked over to the dresser, being drawn closer and closer to it. I lifted my head to take a good look at myself at the mirror.

I screamed.

I saw an orange flame on the middle of my head.

My eyes weren't brown, they were a bright orange.

What scared me even more were the flames that all of a sudden covered my hands. None of these flames burned me, but I panicked as if I was finally going insane. I felt myself falling down into a black abyss, the lower I fell the more intense and painful my headache felt. The pounding pain became more and more brutal.

Next thing I broke out of my dream, snapping myself up into a sitting position. I grasped my head as if I were trying to keep it from exploding on me. My eyes were wired shut as I let out whimpers of pain; my breaths were tight hisses. The pain was so extreme that I could barely concentrate on breathing. It felt like an axe was being smashed onto my head, repeatedly…that's what it literally felt like.

I wanted it to stop…anything to stop this pain.

"Grghhhhh!" I winced, pressing my hands against my head harder.

"Tsunayoshi?"

_Hibari-san._

I couldn't respond; the agonizing pain was too much to deal with. Waterfalls of tears were streaming down my cheeks. Please end this, please…

I could see different images, words, and even sounds, flash in my head…just like what happened last time. Only now, they were much more apparent. I still couldn't make them out though. I could taste blood, I must have bitten my lip so hard that I drew some out.

I felt a hand on my shoulder. It must have been Hibari-san's. I was too occupied with my aching to think twice about that.

…was I going to die? Were these headaches signaling a slow painful death for me?

"Who's messing with my laptop?" I heard an unfamiliar voice. Whoever it came from, they spoke in Japanese.

**~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~**

The pain was slowly subsiding, like before, however, it was still there. I saw more unfamiliar images being flashed in my head. I tried my best to keep it together; I didn't want to wake or worry the others or bring attention to us.

"Who are you?! What are you doing?" The same voice in Japanese, "You're crashing my system!"

_Please go away…please! _

I couldn't say a thing because I was curled up and still in pain, my hands covering my head. My eyes were still shut, tears escaping it. I must have looked really humiliating.

"I have no idea what you're trying to say to us." I heard Hibari say to the angry person, a completely icy tone to his voice. Hibari had the advantage of being scary when he wanted to be, "Speak in English, you herbivore."

"My system crashed! I tracked the interference and it's coming from you!" He spoke in English this time, a Japanese accent lacing his voice.

I let out another strained breath, cowering in my fetal position behind Hibari.

"What's wrong with him?" He said. _Shit…go away._ He just had to notice.

"None of your business. If you don't leave, I'll bite you to death." Hibari replied, absently reaching for his tonfas.

"I'm not going anywhere until you stop messing with my laptop!"

Even though I couldn't see at the moment, I could feel Hibari getting angrier by the minute. I was praying to god he wouldn't maul the guy to pieces with his tonfas. I wanted him to leave so bad; the last thing I wanted was attention drawn to ourselves.

With much force, I pushed myself up and squinted my eyes open. I blinked rapidly, finding the dim tunnel light even painful to my eyes. I tried focusing on the angry person; my eyesight was quite blurry. As it focused I saw a boy who looked our age, like a school student. He wore layers clothes that were torn from wear; he carried a thick dell laptop that had straps attached to his shoulders.

I had say something; I had to be as firm and intimidating as I could so I could get him to go away.

"…Who are you?" I croaked out in a weak and puny voice. I almost slapped myself. Just the effects of my gut wrenching headache.

"I was the one asking you a question!" He angrily said, "Just quit screwing up with my laptop!"

I felt nauseated as I moved; my headache was still there, but I could speak and see clearly by now. The problem was that I had no idea what he was going on about, "….W-what are you talking about?"

"This!"

He turned his laptop towards us and shot his finger towards the screen. My eyes widened while my mouth was wide agape.

On the screen there was a muddle of flashing scenes, words, maps, places, just like the images I saw in my head a few minutes ago.

**~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~ Tsunayoshi ~**

"Quit messing with my system!" He said.

"We're not doing anything." Hibari clearly said. The kid slightly faltered from his stern voice, but regained his composure.

The computer screen cleared completely the next moment. A bright blue screen showed up, causing me to squint my eyes from the harsh light. Large white letters scrolled down the screen.

"_Hello, Tsunayoshi."_

I immediately backed away, my eyes widened. My mouth unable to close from how wide open it was. I looked at Hibari; he was just as surprised as I was. We both simultaneously turned our heads back to the screen.

The screen said: _"Welcome to Japan."_

_I knew you would come. I have big plans for you._

I twitched. I just heard a voice inside my head.

"Hi-Hibari-san did you hear that?"

"What?" He asked.

"That voice…I just heard it seconds ago."

He shook his head. He didn't hear it at all.

"How are you doing this? Who's Tsunayoshi?" The boy asked, he was absolutely puzzled by now.

"I don't know!" I replied, my frustrations getting the better of me. This was all too much to take in; I felt like I was going to hurl any minute too.

A sudden pain struck into my head, I winced and grimaced. The laptop screen started flashing with scenes once again. One of the scenes however kept coming back. I gasped.

That particular scene was the very same building in Kokuyo Land we saw at the library. Hibari immediately recognized it too. The screen immediately became blank.

"I'm going to find who's doing this…" The boy said as he typed in commands on his laptop.

Hibari and I continued to stare at the kid. A minute or so, he slammed his laptop shut, clear frustration on his face. He examined us for a bit, taking note of our disheveled and tired appearances, before speaking again.

"I don't know how you're doing this, but I'm going to find out." He repeated, then asked, "Do you have computers, cellphones, _any_ type of electronics?"

"We don't." Hibari blankly replied, wanting the boy to leave now. His impatience was quite obvious.

He hesitated, examining our appearances some more, "Are you guys runaways?"

"You're very persistent aren't you?"

"Hibari-san…" I softly nudged his elbow with my fist. I didn't want any more problems; we already looked suspicious.

"I'm just asking because you all are a bunch of kids sleeping in a subway tunnel." He said, his anger less evident.

"Can't the same be said for you?" Hibari said, ignoring my silent pleas, "Don't you have school to go to?"

He let out a 'tch' sound then barely laughed; his expression growing into an amused one. I gave the boy a weird look.

"Namimori Middle kicked me out." He said.

_Namimori? _

My eyes widened.

"You used to live in Namimori?!" I exclaimed. That was the city we were looking for! Hibari and I exchanged glances before facing the boy again.

"Yeah." He replied, then gritted his teeth, "One of the teachers caught me cheating twice in a row…that pathetic Nezu-Sensei…I caused a scene and then he got me expelled."

I was taken aback by the sudden anger in his voice.

"My parents found out, got angry, yelled at me bad, then I ran away." He continued, "I decided I would live a new life in Tokyo. I'm smart, I'm good with computers; I could make a profit fixing other peoples' electronics. I don't need my parents and teachers to restrict me from-"

He immediately stopped.

I raised my eyebrows while Hibari narrowed his eyes; he wanted this kid to get on with his life story and leave.

"Wait! Why am I telling you all this?!" He almost yelled, his anger erupting, "Just-just leave me alone!"

He spun off and ran, leaving us to give him shocked stares. That was strange, like a sudden mood swing. I guess that could be the reason why he got expelled…for lashing at his teacher like that. Strangely, he kind of reminded me of us. He was on the run, away from people who restricted him. He wanted to be free from those who kept him from being free.

"Weird…" I muttered, then turned to Hibari, "He mentioned Namimori."

"Yeah, if he ran away from there that probably means it's not far from Tokyo." He replied, looking at the kid who kept a fast pace as he ran further and further away from us.

"Ughhh…but where exactly is it?" I tousled my locks of hair.

Hibari looked around the large cavern we were in and saw that most of the others were asleep. It must have been still late in the night. I saw Gokudera stir awake; I was surprised that everyone managed to stay asleep during that whole fiasco of mines. I decided that I would tell him about the boy's computer, the voice that I heard, and my sudden headache I got. I tried sounding as calm as I could so I wouldn't worry Gokudera. He got angry that someone would blame me for something I didn't even do, but I insisted that it didn't matter; that guy was long gone.

"So he used to be a Namimori student?" Gokudera asked, taking in everything I said.

I nodded, "We should have asked where Namimori was before he stormed off.

"There's plenty of maps around; maybe we can find one that shows all of Japan." He replied.

I slumped my shoulders forwards and bowed my head down. All of those pictures I saw in my head, that strange dream, the voice; it was too much to deal with, "…I think I might be going crazy."

"Someone's messing with you." Gokudera said, irritation present on his face, "Once I find out who it is…"

"Maybe it's all connected to Kokuyo Land. All we can do is go there and find out." I replied. I was half relieved my headache was nearly gone.

Gokudera nodded, "So, tomorrow?"

"Yes."


End file.
